tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80310639662725085872019-02-22T13:20:27.761+01:00ボクの事件簿Ho-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.comBlogger881125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-8518242372716487922019-02-20T00:00:00.000+01:002019-02-20T00:00:04.038+01:00Ghost in the Machinery<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">「最後の列車を待つ 疲れ果てた真夜中のホーム」</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;「ファイティングポーズの詩」（馬場俊英）</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"Waiting for the last train / on the platform in the dead-tired night"</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"Fighting Pose Song" (Baba Toshihide)&nbsp;</span></div><br />One of the little things I like, but seldom use in Japanese trains are those turning seats! The ones in the trains of the Eizan line in Kyoto are especially cool, as you could turn them to the windows to admire the falling fall leaves.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e9O30A_GUpk/W4bbejibfTI/AAAAAAAADz0/JnjUOR3PfUUpNA_zpTQPvbaLDAhKg8uywCLcBGAs/s1600/ressha1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e9O30A_GUpk/W4bbejibfTI/AAAAAAAADz0/JnjUOR3PfUUpNA_zpTQPvbaLDAhKg8uywCLcBGAs/s1600/ressha1.jpg" /></a></div><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Akagawa%20Jirou%20%7C%20%E8%B5%A4%E5%B7%9D%E6%AC%A1%E9%83%8E">Akagawa Jirou</a> is one of the most prolific and famous mystery writers in Japan, best known for his light-hearted detective stories with a comedic tone, like the <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/search/label/Tortoise-Shell%20Cat%20Holmes%20%7C%20%E4%B8%89%E6%AF%9B%E7%8C%AB%E3%83%9B%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A0%E3%82%BA"><i>Tortoise-Shell Cat Holmes</i></a> series. He was especially active from his debut in the late seventies until the late eighties, and there have been numerous adaptations of his work on television, the silver screen and even videogames. He made his debut in 1976 with the short story <i>Yuurei Ressha</i> ("<i>The Ghost Train</i>"), which is also the title of today's book: the short story collection <i>Yuurei Ressha</i> ("<i>The Ghost Train</i>", 1978) includes five stories in Akagawa's long-running <i>Ghost</i> series. The book opens with <i>The Ghost Train</i> naturally, which introduces us to the protagonists of this series: Chief Inspector Uno from the Metropolitan Police Department is given a few days "off" to spend in a small resort town with a hot spring. He is to look informally into a certain mysterious incident that happened a few days ago: the eight passengers who stepped inside the very first train that day <i>disappeared, </i>as <i>an empty</i> train arrived at the second station in the line. There's nothing but mountains and forests between the two stations and a search gave no results. At arrival in town, Chief Inspector Uno starts poking around, but he's not the only one interested in the case: he also runs into the female college student Nagai Yuuko, who is a fan of detective stories and hopes to solve the case herself. And to Uno's surprise, this active and lively girl is<br />more than just words.<br /><br />To start: what's up with Akagawa Jirou and couples with an age difference? Uno (in his forties) and Yuuko (early twenties) flirt a bit around in the first two stories and end up dating, but the middle-aged man and female college student couple is something that happens <i>a lot</i> in Akagawa's stories. <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2014/08/tender-hearted.html"><i>Tantei Monogatari</i></a>, <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-body-in-library.html"><i>Satsujin wo Yonda Hon</i></a>.... The female college student is usually the detective character by the way, but for some reason she's always being courted by a man about twice her age.<br /><br />Anyway, back to the story collection. The opening story <i>Yuurei Ressha</i> certainly has an alluring mystery, with eight people disappearing from a running train. One shouldn't expect some kind of grand trick to this disappearance though: the solution is rather mundane (yet practical). The beef of the story lies with figuring out <i>why</i> this happened, and I quite like the motive. Some events that happen feel rather like a lucky break for the detecting couple, but overall an okay story. <i>Yuurei Ressha</i> was also adapted as a videogame by the way: <i>Akagawa Jirou no Yuurei Ressha</i> ("<i>Akagawa Jirou's Ghost Train</i>") was released in 1991 for the Famicom, and has some surprising names attached to it, like <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Ikeda%20Misa%20%7C%20%E6%B1%A0%E7%94%B0%E7%BE%8E%E4%BD%90">Ikeda Misa</a> doing the scenario and <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Quest">Dragon Quest</a> </i>composer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koichi_Sugiyama">Sugiyama Kouichi</a> responsible for the music.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--qZ22URrXJ0/W4bbevF8ZeI/AAAAAAAADzw/GYckYgX4bnc_aFgW8lxcDpbjyB9bnn1SQCLcBGAs/s1600/ressha2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="178" data-original-width="251" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--qZ22URrXJ0/W4bbevF8ZeI/AAAAAAAADzw/GYckYgX4bnc_aFgW8lxcDpbjyB9bnn1SQCLcBGAs/s1600/ressha2.jpg" /></a></div><br />The second story <i>Uragirareta Yuukai</i> ("<i>The Betrayed Kidnapping</i>") is set some time after <i>Yuurei Ressha</i>. Uno and Yuuko hadn't seen or spoken each other since the train case, but their reunion is not a happy one: Uno is asked to head the investigation into a kidnapping case of the teenage daughter of a businessman. Yuuko happens to be the tutor of the girl, making her a part of the investigation too. As a mystery story I think the conclusion is not as shocking as intended and it's pretty easy to guess who the true kidnapper is, but there's a very good piece of misdirection going early on in the story. In <i>Kooritsuita Taiyou</i> ("<i>The Frozen Sun</i>"), Uno and Yuuko are staying in a resort hotel, when Uno runs into an old friend: a skilled pickpocket who has since reformed. The two recognize another man, a notorious blackmailer, and Uno suspects the man's blackmailing one of the other guests at the hotel, a mother of three. Uno, Yuuko and the ex-pickpocket plan to get the blackmailer to back off, but to their great surprise, they find him dead in his hotel room balcony. And what's more surprising: the man <i>froze</i> to death even though it's summer! The truth behind how and why the man was frozen to deeath is quite hard to swallow, as it's incredibly hard to imagine things could've gone this way, but I have to admit it was pretty shrewdly clewed.<br /><br />In <i>Tokoro ni yori, Ame</i> ("<i>And locally, rain</i>"), Yuuko has to arrange a number of guest lectures for the university fair and she manages to have her boyfriend Uno do one about his police work for free. While discussing the plans with her supervising teacher, the body of the teacher's assistant is found in the cellar of the faculty. At first it appears he just fell from the staircase, but for some reason, the man was dressed in a raincoat and boots, even though it was not raining outside! Later, another assistant is found murdered near his home, and he too was dressed in the same outfit. How are these deaths connected? The truth behind the various deaths isn't that difficult to guess, but the truth behind the raincoat and boots was pretty inspired and aptly clewed. In the final story, <i>The Festival of The Good Folk Village</i>, Uno and Yuuko hope to spend New Year in a resort town, but an avalanche prevents the train from proceeding any more. Uno runs into a fellow police officer from the Metropolitan Police Department, who says his home village is around here, and he invites Uno and Yuuko to "The Good Folk Village", a small community up in the mountains. The two are welcomed <i>extremely</i> warmly by the people there, but slowly, Uno and Yuuko sense there's something wrong with the village, but what? This story doesn't really work as a detective story for the reader to solve, and has more common ground with horror stories.<br /><br /><i>Yuurei Ressha</i> is on the whole not a story collection that will leave a very big impression, but it's never <i>really</i> bad either. The comedy between playful Yuuko and the older Uno is pretty fun to follow, and while the individual stories are never masterpieces, there's usually one or two ideas to be found that I at least thought pretty good. The <i>Ghost</i> series is one of Akagawa's long-sellers by the way: there are 24 short story collections and 2 novels, published between 1978 and 2017. I don't have any plans to read more of the series for the moment, but perhaps, if they happen to cross my path...<br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Original Japanese title(s): 赤川次郎『幽霊列車』: 「幽霊列車」/「裏切られた誘拐」/「凍りついた太陽」/「ところにより、雨」/「善人村の村祭」</span>Ho-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-36910402394602201072019-02-12T00:00:00.000+01:002019-02-15T19:48:15.861+01:00The Dragon's Secret<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">「明日 僕は龍の足元へ崖を登り 呼ぶよ「さあ、行こうぜ」」</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">『 銀の龍の背に乗って』（中島みゆき) </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"Tomorrow I will climb the cliff to the feet of the dragon and cry out "Let's depart!"</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"<i>Climbing on the Back of the Silver Dragon</i>" (Nakajima Miyuki)</span></div><br /><i>The</i> discovery for me last year was<a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Mitsuda%20Shinzou%20%7C%20%E4%B8%89%E6%B4%A5%E7%94%B0%E4%BF%A1%E4%B8%89"> Mitsuda Shinzou</a>'s <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Toujou%20Genya%20%7C%20%E5%88%80%E5%9F%8E%E8%A8%80%E8%80%B6"><i>Toujou Genya</i></a> series. <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2018/01/attack-of-headless-horror.html"><i>Kubinashi no Gotoki Tataru Mono</i></a> and <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/06/night-on-haunted-mountain.html"><i>Yamanma no Gotoki Warau Mono</i></a> are easily two of the best mystery novels I've read in <i>years</i>, and while perhaps not completely at the same level as those two, <i><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/10/grim-judgment.html">Majimono no Gotoki Tsuku Mono</a> </i>too was a devilish experience in impressive mystery plotting. The series manages to mix brilliant mystery plots with deep insights into local folklore, religions and history together with a distintive horror tone, resulting in absolutely amazing novels. And that meant of course I was sure to read more of the series this year.<br /><br />The Hami region in Nara is a small, secluded area that is characterized by Mt. Futae, Lake Chinshin located at the foot of that mountain, and the Mitsu River that springs from Lake Chinshin. Four communities eventually settled around Mitsu River, all making a simple and sometimes harsh living from farming. Sayo Village, Monodane Village, Saho Village and Aota Village all exist solely thanks to the blessings of Mitsu River (which feeds the crops), so it is not strange that the people here came to see the river as a deity that determined the future of their lives here. The Mitsu River is therefore worshipped, and feared as a force of nature called Mizuchi, or the Water Spirit, which is believed to be a dragon-like being which resides at the bottom of Lake Chinshin. All four villages have shrines dedicated to the Water Spirit, being the Mizushi Shrine in Sayo, Mizuchi Shrine in Monodane, the Suiba Shrine in Saho and the Mikumari Shrine in Aota, and the four shrines and their priests are effectively the major authorities in this region, with Sayo's boasting the longest history in its divine tasks. The shrines are in possession of seven artifacts said to be parts of Mizuchi, being the Horn, Nostril, Fang, Scale, Bone and the Lightning of Mizuchi.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-g0ZppkZToTs/XEcerabwOSI/AAAAAAAAD_M/vbZX-ga8HzUclgxabmqm1KXQjq6RrogwQCLcBGAs/s1600/miduchi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="285" data-original-width="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-g0ZppkZToTs/XEcerabwOSI/AAAAAAAAD_M/vbZX-ga8HzUclgxabmqm1KXQjq6RrogwQCLcBGAs/s1600/miduchi.jpg" /></a></div>As life in Hami is so dependent on the Mitsu River, it's no wonder that the most important task of the four shrines is to safeguard the water levels of the river. The human-built dams are manually controlled by the shrines, but in times of unusual draughts, or in unusal wet periods, the shrines have to resort to divine measures, and perform the Ceremony of Mizuchi, which can be either a rain making or rain stopping ritual, depending on what the people of Hami are facing now. Each time, a different shrine is chosen to perform the ceremony, which is held on Lake Chinshin. The Kami-Otoko, a chosen priest, is to go on the lake in a special, covered boat with an opening in the bottom, where he is to sink barrels with offerings for Mizuchi into the lake, all under the watchful eyes of the dancing maid and the priests of the other shrines playing music on the shore. The ceremony is succesful once all six barrels of offerings are sunk to the bottom, but this can be a very perilous ceremony, as at times barrels will come back floating up, and then the Kami-Otoko will have to dive down with the barrel himself to have it swallowed into a dangerous underwater tunnel in the lake. 23 years ago, Mikumari Tatsuo vanished during the Ceremony, believed to have been sucked into the tunnel himself. 13 years ago, Mizushi Ryuuichi was found dead inside the boat with a horribly contorted expression on his face, as he had apparently died of a heart attack in fear of some terrifying sight. It is in 1954 when horror mystery author <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Toujou%20Genya%20%7C%20%E5%88%80%E5%9F%8E%E8%A8%80%E8%80%B6">Toujou Genya</a> and his editor Shino make their way to the Hami region, having learned the Ceremony of Mizuchi will be performed soon to pray for water. Toujou travels across Japan to learn about local folklore, religions and legends, and finds that this is a unique opportunity to witness the ceremony. This year, the ceremony is performed by Mizushi Ryuuzou, younger brother of Ryuuichi who died thirteen years ago. Everyone on the shore looks on as they see the boat rock on the lake surface as each of the barrels is thrown in, but nothing happens even after all six barrels were thrown overboard, and when the captain of the boat takes a look inside the closed, covered room of the small boat, he cries out to the shore that Ryuuzou has been murdered! When they make it to the boat, Genya and the others find that Ryuuzou was stabbed through his chest with the Horn of Mizuchi, one of the artifacts held in the Mizushi Shrine. But how could Ryuuzou have been stabbed by anyone, as the whole lake was under observation during the ceremony? Genya soon suspects this all has to do with the death of Ryuuichi thirteen years ago, but also with a strange storage house Ryuuji (father of both Ryuuichi and Ryuuzou) has kept hidden from everyone and the true, unknown history of the Hami region in <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Mitsuda%20Shinzou%20%7C%20%E4%B8%89%E6%B4%A5%E7%94%B0%E4%BF%A1%E4%B8%89">Mitsuda Shinzou</a>'s <i>Mizuchi no Gotoki Shizumu Mono</i> ("<i>Those Who Submerge Like The Water Spirit</i>" 2009). <br /><br />I always try to keep my story summaries as brief as possible whenever I write a review, but with <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Toujou%20Genya%20%7C%20%E5%88%80%E5%9F%8E%E8%A8%80%E8%80%B6">the <i>Toujou Genya</i> series</a>, I always end up having to sketch a lot of the background story for my summaries to make any sense. This is also done in the series itself: it always takes <i>ages</i> for the novels to actually get to the introduction of a genuine mystery that has be solved, as usually the first half of the novel is needed to prepare the mise-en-place with all the unique religions, insanely complex human relations etc. It was actually something I somewhat complained about in my review of <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/10/grim-judgment.html">Majimono no Gotoki Tsuku Mono</a>. I do have to say though, <i>Mi</i><i>zuchi no Gotoki Shizumu Mono</i>, the fifth novel in the series, has been by far the easiest read, despite it not only being the longest entry in the series I've read until now, here too the murder on Ryuuzou doesn't occur until the halfway point of the book (around page 350, of more than 700 pages in the pocket paperback). Yet the story never felt as slowly paced as previous novels. The writing is less winding on the whole I think, so in terms of reading experience, I might say this novel may be the "most pleasant" way to start the series, even if I think <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2018/01/attack-of-headless-horror.html"><i>Kubinashi no Gotoki Tataru Mono</i></a> and <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/06/night-on-haunted-mountain.html"><i>Yamanma no Gotoki Warau Mono</i></a> are, on the whole, better mystery novels (though <i>Mi</i><i>zuchi no Gotoki Shizumu Mono</i> is really good too).<br /><br />I'll refrain from talking about the theme of <i>synergy</i> this time, as I have done that enough in my reviews of <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2018/01/attack-of-headless-horror.html"><i>Kubinashi no Gotoki Tataru Mono</i></a> and <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/06/night-on-haunted-mountain.html"><i>Yamanma no Gotoki Warau Mono</i></a>, so let's talk about something else: the theme of folklore interpretation. In order to even <i>try</i> to solve the cases that happen in the <i>Toujou Genya</i> series, it is imperative to understand the underlying logic and dynamics of the various rites and folkloristic rituals that form the nexi of the plots in these novels. Themes like spirit mediums, Rites of Adulthood and Shrine Visits to appease vengeful spirits might <i>sound</i> like elements that don't belong in a mystery novel, where logic should prevail, but in the <i>Toujou Genya</i> series, it is necessary to understand <i>why</i> and <i>how</i> these rituals are performed and <i>what</i> the underlying meaning is behind these rituals. For whether you believe in Mizuchi or the kami Aohime or not is irrelevant: it's the human actions, and the human interpretation behind these phenomena that <i>are</i> of importance in the logical processes needed to solve the murder cases in this series.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3lplYZeo7VY/XEchvLvBKaI/AAAAAAAAD_Y/rRYrNSANzcEqgD5lEAWdPR1UXN2PqvIRwCLcBGAs/s1600/miduchi2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3lplYZeo7VY/XEchvLvBKaI/AAAAAAAAD_Y/rRYrNSANzcEqgD5lEAWdPR1UXN2PqvIRwCLcBGAs/s1600/miduchi2.jpg" /></a></div>Most of the mysterious events that Genya faces in <i>Mizuchi no Gotoki Shizumu Mono</i> revolve around a certain realization he has regarding the Ceremony of Mizuchi, and it's that realization that not only allows him to deduce who the murderer is of Ryuuzou, but more importantly, why. This realization is <i>excellently</i> hinted at. While there are no real physical clues that points to this, the way Mitsuda has used so many elements to hint at this hidden truth behind the Ceremony of Mizuchi is more than impressive. From linguistic hints to associative hints where you recognize one certain action in another, to even brazenly stating the fact as is (of course in a disguised way): Mitsuda does more than enough to nudge the reader in the right direction. Again, this all has to do with religious and folkloristic themes, and it's easy to just wave them away as 'sure, it's not real', but what Mitsuda <i>always</i> does is leaving more than enough clues to allow the reader to comprehend the underlying <i>logic</i> behind these rituals (why are these rituals performed in this manner for what purpose?), and even recognize contradictions in the <i>religious logic</i> behind the rites, which eventually guides you to the truth. Once you have that realization in this novel though, you're still not there, as while that gives you the motive (a very understandable one, considering the horrid truth!), it still doesn't give you the identity of the murderer. <br /><br />There we have another <i>Toujou Genya</i> staple, the fake solution. Genya's method of deduction consists of first listing a lot of questions that bother him (I think he has like forty questions listed in this novel concerning various incidents) and then just <i>say what comes to mind</i>. He simply comes up with theories and hypotheses as he goes, and when people come up with counterarguments or proof that what he says can't be true, he'll just dismiss what doesn't work, and continue to build his theories in a different direction. That means he can easily spend five pages building a certain theory, and immediately discard it on the next page to try something else. In fact, I think that in this novel, the whole section with both the fake and real solutions in the end take up like a hundred pages together. And the thing is: all the fake solutions are <i>really good solutions</i>. They are really well argumented, and it's usually only by a small detail you forgot that you have to give up on them. Any of these solutions would have made most mystery writers think they have a brilliant solution and totally ended their novel with that, but Mitsuda easily discards five-seven of these brilliant theories to come up with one that's even better. And Mitsuda wouldn't be Mitsuda if he would be using the fake solutions both to steer the reader into the right direction, as well as the wrong direction at the same time. A good part of the denouement of this novel is spent by identifying what characteristics the murderer must answer to, and while Mitsuda is definitely not lying when he presents that list of characteristics, he's <i>also</i> brilliantly leading you away from the true solution. His writing is always very tricky, both "kind" in the sense he's playing <i>really, really</i> fair in terms of clewing, but also very sneaky as he's a master in misdirection and he's usually simultaneously helping and deceiving you. Speaking of that, there's an excellent piece of misdirection where a certain line seems not particular meaningful, but takes on several different meanings once you reach a certain point in the chain of deduction. It kinda reminded me of <i>that one line</i> in <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Yokomizo%20Seishi%20%7C%20%E6%A8%AA%E6%BA%9D%E6%AD%A3%E5%8F%B2">Yokomizo Seishi</a>'s <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2016/11/deep-blue-island.html"><i>Gokumontou</i></a> in how brazenly it is uttered and yet so likely to not be noticed by the reader until it is too late.<br /><br />If taken completely seperate from the story, the main locked room murder situation of this novel, where Ryuuzou is stabbed with the Horn of Mizuchi even though nobody could've approached him while out on the lake in the closed-off section of the boat, features a clever, but perhaps not entirely shocking trick behind it. However, taken in the complete context of the story, this murder works <i>really</i> well. The motive, means and opportunity behind this murder are unique in the sense that they are not only derived all from the core (religious) theme of this novel, they are also <i>completely</i> concentrated in this main act of murder. There are actually a few other murders that happen in the latter half of the story, though none in particularly impossible situations, but they are mainly a device to push the story forward, and to serve as both hints and misdirection to the identity of the murderer. But again, it's the way Mitsuda manages to flesh out a unique background story and motive based on folkloristic themes, that is also perfectly clewed and actually logical in argumentation, what makes this series in general, but also <i>Mizuchi no Gotoki Shizumu Mono</i> in particular, an impressive read.<br /><br />By the way, the series is specifically called a horror-mystery series, and there are actually also some minor (horror) elements that remain unexplained in this novel, as it happens in other novels too. These events do not have direct bearing on the core mystery plot, but there is always a hint of the supernatural in this series (to give a simple example, the Ceremony of Mizuchi basically always works and one of the characters talks about a past event that involved him possibly seeing some monster). These minor, unexplained horror elements should not be any reason not to read these novels though for their mystery plots, as you'd be missing out on something fantastic.<br /><br />This novel is not directly connected to previous novels (save for some references early on to <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2018/01/attack-of-headless-horror.html"><i>Kubinashi no Gotoki Tataru Mono</i></a> and <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/06/night-on-haunted-mountain.html"><i>Yamanma no Gotoki Warau Mono</i></a> which happened several months earlier), though there is a nice link with the first novel in the series, <i><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/10/grim-judgment.html">Majimono no Gotoki Tsuku Mono</a>.</i> Certain names mentioned in <i>Mizuchi no Gotoki Shizumu Mono</i> will take on a completely different meaning if you have read the first novel and while it was not necessary, I am glad I read<i> Majimono no Gotoki Tsuku Mono</i> before this novel (especially as I always read these things out of order).<br /><br />Perhaps unsurprisingly, I found <i>Mizuchi no Gotoki Shizumu Mono</i> to be another impressive mystery novel in the <i>Toujou Genya</i> series. Perhaps surprisingly, I did find this novel easier to read that the other entries I've read, and while both <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2018/01/attack-of-headless-horror.html"><i>Kubinashi no Gotoki Tataru Mono</i></a> and <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/06/night-on-haunted-mountain.html"><i>Yamanma no Gotoki Warau Mono</i></a> are among the best mystery novels I've ever read, I do have to admit they feel <i>kinda</i> samey. In that regard I found <i>Mizuchi no Gotoki Shizumu Mono</i>, with a slightly more focused look on the underlying folkloristic background of this novel as the nexus of its mystery, a very entertaining read that managed to avoid feeling too similar to other novels in the series. Though I have to say, up until now, all the <i>Toujou Genya</i> novels I have read are <i>incredibly</i> good, and I can't believe that four novels in, I still haven't come across one that even remotely disappointed in terms of plotting. With still three novels and two short story collections unread as I am writing this, I'll be sure to return to this series soon.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Original Japanese title(s): 三津田信三 『水魑の如き沈むもの』</span>Ho-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-23185817091043880442019-02-06T00:00:00.002+01:002019-02-06T08:26:13.796+01:00Two Points to Murder<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">「私は、その男の写真を三葉、見たことがある。」</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">『人間失格』</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"I have seen three photographs of that man."</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"<i>No Longer Human</i>" </span></div><br />When <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Yokomizo%20Seishi%20%7C%20%E6%A8%AA%E6%BA%9D%E6%AD%A3%E5%8F%B2">Yokomizo Seishi</a>'s fictional detective <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Kindaichi%20Kousuke%20%7C%20%E9%87%91%E7%94%B0%E4%B8%80%E8%80%95%E5%8A%A9">Kindaichi Kousuke</a> first appeared in the excellent locked room murder mystery <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2011/03/blog-post_25.html"><i>Honjin Satsujin Jiken</i></a> (1946), we learned that the young man with the chaotic hair and his shabby, hakama appearance had already gone through a lot on his life. He had left Japan for the United States some years ago, where he got addicted to drugs, but eventually got his life back on the rails in San Francisco. There Kindaichi helped a Japanese tourist, who had been a suspect in a murder case, by solving the mystery himself, and so Kindaichi decided to become a private detective when he returned to Japan. After <i>Honjin Satsujin Jiken</i>, which was set in 1937, Kindaichi would get drafted and sent abroad as a private in the Japanese army and he miraculously made it back in one piece, though his friend Chimata didn't make it, setting off the events of <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2016/11/deep-blue-island.html"><i>Gokumontou</i></a> (1947). After that, Kindaichi would pick up his work as a private detective again, solving many cases all across the country.<i> </i>Quite a few of these cases involved horrible serial murders involving complex human relations, generations-long family fueds and hate-filled plots for vengeance.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jsoRExdX9xA/W2Fp5pLQ6EI/AAAAAAAADwM/wOyfUHaFjwgsKVIEDtO0yWA-sVbKcP1xgCLcBGAs/s1600/byouin1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="290" data-original-width="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jsoRExdX9xA/W2Fp5pLQ6EI/AAAAAAAADwM/wOyfUHaFjwgsKVIEDtO0yWA-sVbKcP1xgCLcBGAs/s1600/byouin1.jpg" /></a></div>It was in 1953 that Kindaichi's longest case would start, and it would take him <i>twenty years</i> to solve it! <i>Byouinzaka no Kubikukuri no Ie</i> ("<i>The House of Hanging on Hospital Hill</i>", 1978) starts with Kindaichi being hired as a private detective in two related cases involving the old Hougen General Hospital and the adjoining Hougen residence on Hospital Hill in Tokyo's Minato-ku. The hospital and Hougen residence were mostly lost during the bomb raids of World War II, leaving only the ruins of the place that gave the hill its name. Kindaichi is hired by Hougen Yayoi, who is the last of the Hougen bloodline together with her granddaughter Yukari. Yukari has been kidnapped by someone who wants to take revenge on the Hougen family, and Yayoi wants Kindaichi to find her granddaughter. Meanwhile, Kindaichi is also hired by Honjou Naokichi, son of Tokubee of the Honjou Photograph Studio. A few days ago, Naokichi was hired to take some wedding pictures, but to his great surprise, he was led to the old abandoned ruins of the Hougen residence. There Naokichi had to take pictures of a suspicious bearded man as the groom and his apparently drugged bride, which made Naokichi feel very uneasy about the whole deal. Naokichi tried to go to the police, but as there was no evidence something had happened, Inspector Todoroki sent Naokichi to his old friend Kindaichi, who he figured would be better suited for this job.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HlW0w1uhU7o/W2Fp5kiiI4I/AAAAAAAADwI/W1BKzeFrfXkRgdFGIeo5m22cHVjhWXvHACLcBGAs/s1600/byouin2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="290" data-original-width="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HlW0w1uhU7o/W2Fp5kiiI4I/AAAAAAAADwI/W1BKzeFrfXkRgdFGIeo5m22cHVjhWXvHACLcBGAs/s1600/byouin2.jpg" /></a></div>The detective realizes his two cases must be related due to the Hougen connection, but to his great shock, the case seems to run into a stop when one night, <i>the decapitated head of the bearded man is discovered inside the Hougen residence, hanging from the ceiling</i>. While there is a suspect for this murder, Kindaichi does not manage to wrap the case up as all the leads run cold. Twenty years later, in 1973, this case suddenly starts to come back to life after the demise of Honjou Tokubee of the Honjou Photograph Studio. Someone is apparently after the life of Naokichi, who has now taken over the Photograph Studio, so Kindaichi and Todoroki, who has quit the police and is now running his own detective agency, try to protect the man, but fail, and it seems that this new murder is connected to the deheading case twenty years ago. Kindaichi failed to solve this case in 1953, but can he finally put an end to it all?<br /><br />In 2013, I reviewed <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2013/09/his-last-bow.html">the 1979 film adaptation of this book</a>, directed by Ichikawa Kon and starring Ishizaka Kouji as Kindaichi Kousuke. I've actually owned the two volumes of this book for much longer than that: I think I bought my volumes in 2012, but after I saw the film, I didn't really bother to read the book anymore, though I knew that there were quite some differences between the film and the original book. The most important one being that the two-decade time skip doesn't exist in the film. The original book consists of two volumes: the first set in 1953, and the second in 1973, but the film greatly simplifies the events of the second volume to smoothen out the plot of the film, with everything happening in one go. In the timeline of the novels, <i>Byouinzaka no Kubikukuri no Ie</i><i> </i>is the very last case Kindaichi solves (<a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2011/10/blog-post_14.html"><i>Akuryoutou</i></a> was <i>published</i> after, but set chronologically <i>before</i> this novel), and the novel actually carries the subtitle "<i>The Final Case of Kindaichi Kousuke</i>". In the film, Kindaichi has already decided he'll go the United States at the beginning of the film, tired of the tragedy he comes across in his line of work, but in the novel, Kindaichi only decides to travel to the United States after he manages to solve the case, and none of his friends would ever hear from him again (it's not like <i><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Kindaichi%20Shounen%20no%20Jikenbo%20%7C%20%E9%87%91%E7%94%B0%E4%B8%80%E5%B0%91%E5%B9%B4%E3%81%AE%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%B6%E7%B0%BF">Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenb</a>o</i> ever <i>really</i> cared about the original Kindaichi Kousuke besides using him as something like brand name, but I don't think they ever explained when Kousuke returned to Japan...)<br /><br />When you pick up a Yokomizo novel, or specifically a <i>Kindaichi</i> novel, there's a good chance you'll be treated to a complex family tree. Like I mentioned in the introduction, complex family feuds and other interpersonal relations usually lie at the heart of the tragedy in these stories, and often, the plot revolves around insanely complex relations between the various characters, which serve as the motive. <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2011/08/blog-post_17.html"><i>Inugamike no Ichizoku</i></a> for example is all about who will inherit, while <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2016/11/deep-blue-island.html"><i>Gokumontou</i></a>, well, you have to read it. <i>Byouinzaka no Kubikukuri no Ie </i>is not only the longest novel in the <i>Kindaichi Kousuke</i> series, it also features one of the most complex family trees in the whole series. In fact, the film adaptation greatly simplified it (leaving out <i>an entire generation,</i> making Yayoi Yukari's mother) and it was still difficult to comprehend, which is actually mentioned in the film itself by Kindaichi and his film-original assistant Mokutarou. The first chapter is in fact just a retelling of the family tree of the Hougen (and the in-law Igarashi) clan and this can be a bit tiring, as it does really require the reader to pay attention. For people not into this, I really can't recommend this novel.<br /><br />The core mystery plot can basically be split in two: the 1953 deheading case and the 1973 murder on Naokichi (and more). The film adaptation focuses mostly on the first case and is relatively faithful to the original novel. It's <i>kinda</i> hard to deduce for yourself why the bearded man was decapitated and then hung from the ceiling, but Yokomizo plays a trick here that I think makes more of a direct impression in the film, but the extended runtime of the novel (especially with the two-decade jump) also gives this idea something really extra. The way it ties back to the family tree is great though, especially as it really motivates why some characters acted the way they did. The events of the second volume are greatly simplified in the film and in fact, the film and the novel feature a different culprit! The basic premise of both versions is similar, but it's obvious that the simplified plot of the film could never have justified the original culprit. I think both versions work in their own way (especially as they place the focus on other aspects of the tale). The novel's second volume is basically a mystery story on its own, that uses the events of the first volume as a motive for the happenings in this volume, and it works reasonably well. Several of the characters who were barely shown in the film get a lot more attention here. The murderer uses a certain alibi trick here for the murder of Naokichi, that Kindaichi reveals as having its origin in one of Yokomizo's other novels, which is pretty funny.<i> </i>Another interesting point is that Kindachi actually manages to <i>protect</i> quite a few potential victims in this second volume. Kindaichi Kousuke, and <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Kindaichi%20Shounen%20no%20Jikenbo%20%7C%20%E9%87%91%E7%94%B0%E4%B8%80%E5%B0%91%E5%B9%B4%E3%81%AE%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%B6%E7%B0%BF">grandson Hajime</a>, have a pretty spotty record when it comes to saving people, so it was kinda funny to see Kindaichi succeeding mostly in that. Overall though, the focus of the mystery plot does lie on figuring out how each person is <i>really</i> connected to another, so it's a very character-based mystery.<br /><br />As the final <i>Kindaichi Kousuke</i> story, there are <i>a lot</i> of cameos and references to some of the secondary cast. Several police inspectors who have helped Kindaichi in the past in both the novels and the short stories appear, as well as other minor characters like boss Kazama (Kindaichi's old friend, patron and the one who introduced him to Hougen Yayoi) and the informant-like Tamon Shuu (who in the film is more-or-less replaced by the film-original Mokutarou). Yokomizo Seishi also features greatly in the story, trying to solve the case himself (he also appears in the film adaptation playing himself in the prologue and epilogue). It's obvious that Yokomizo really intended this to be the ultimate story of Kindaichi with both the length and scale of this mystery, as well as with all these references.<br /><br />I would not rate <i>Byouinzaka no Kubikukuri no Ie</i> to be among the best of the <i>Kindaichi Kousuke</i> novels: a lot it does has been done in other <i>Kindaichi </i>novels and while the scale of this story is definitely impressive, the core plot of who is doing what for what reason is surprisingly simple. The core event that ties the 1953 and 1973 events do have a better lasting impression in the novel than in the film, though it does work quite well in the film too, I think. But even if it's not a top grade <i>Kindaichi</i>, I think it's a capably-constructed mystery that works as the very last adventure of Kindaichi Kousuke.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Original Japanese title(s): 横溝正史『病院坂の首縊りの家』</span>Ho-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-5576279350286611792019-02-03T12:00:00.000+01:002019-02-15T11:02:14.188+01:00The Thirteenth Pearl<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;「美しさは人の心惑わす月のように</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">あの夏の朧月夜煌めき続ける」</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">「儚い珠のように・・・」(星守紗凪)</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Beauty is like the moon that deceives the hearts of people</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">It keeps on shining like the misty moonlit night in the summer</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"<i>Hakanai Tama no You ni...</i>" (Hoshimori Sana)</span></div><br />In general, I don't really mind from what time period my mystery fiction hails, as long as it entertains me. It's a reason why I don't bother with period tags like "Golden Age" for my reviews. Of course, it can be harder to obtain older material in general, but age itself is not a factor that plays a significant role when I pick the next in line. The same with videogames actually. Obviously, there's an extra hurdle here compared to for example books: a book from 1900 will function exactly the same as one published in 2019 and does not require other objects to work, while you do need to find the proper hardware for each videogame, and it's definitely harder to find older videogames, and the corresponding hardware. That's why the reviews of mystery videogames here on the blog do have a slight bias for newer hardware, as it's simply easier to get hold of them, but again, in general, I just play whatever seems interesting, as long as I have the right hardware.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yJgCbWPKWlM/XFbBwUo3obI/AAAAAAAAEAQ/jyYXbbyPIx0z8652fzm0dyMjWvKyjbeaQCLcBGAs/s1600/iseshima4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="267" data-original-width="399" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yJgCbWPKWlM/XFbBwUo3obI/AAAAAAAAEAQ/jyYXbbyPIx0z8652fzm0dyMjWvKyjbeaQCLcBGAs/s1600/iseshima4.jpg" /></a></div><br />Unlike books however, videogames have changed a lot in a relatively short period, especially in terms of visuals. When I open <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2016/06/the-adventure-of-sinister-stranger.html"><i>De Geheimzinnige Japanees</i></a>, which is probably the oldest book I have at the moment, it's not that different from any book I purchase now in 2019, even though there's close to a century between those two releases. But if you compare for example <i>Super Mario Bros. </i>(1985) with <i>Super Mario Odyssey</i> (2017), you'll see an immense difference in terms of well, everything, but the graphics are probably the most obvious changes. And of course, these two games don't even run on the same hardware. The graphical style of the original <i>Super Mario Bros</i>. is of course also a product of its time, as the available hardware (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System">the Famicom or Nintendo Entertainment System</a>) then obviously couldn't even dream of rendering something like <i>Super Mario Odyssey</i>. Heck it is likely that nowadays, even one single music track from <i>Odyssey</i> will take up more storage than the Famicom can handle.<br /><br />The mystery videogames I discuss here are, obviously, all games in the broader adventure genre, where you solve puzzles in order to progress in a story (yes, that is like a mystery story in general, where a puzzle/mysery needs to be solved to reach the conclusion). Broadly speaking, I usually discuss two kinds here. First are the novel games, which are like digital Choose-Your-Own-Adventures: you are mostly just reading yourself through a story, but occassionally you are confronted with a story-deciding choice, which influences the further outcome of the story. Usually you'll be exploring all kinds of branching storylines (and going back) in order to find the correct route to the end. Examples of these games are <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Kamaitachi%20no%20Yoru%20%7C%20%E3%81%8B%E3%81%BE%E3%81%84%E3%81%9F%E3%81%A1%E3%81%AE%E5%A4%9C"><i>Kamaitachi no Yoru</i></a>, <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2012/09/blog-post.html"><i>428</i></a> and <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2013/12/sophisticate.html"><i>Machi</i></a>. The other type I usually discuss is the command-style adventure. Here you use set commands like [TALK], [MOVE], [USE], [LOOK] etc. do interact with the characters and environment in order to proceed in the story. These games are basically an offspring of traditional Point &amp; Click adventures on the PC (for example <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_Island_(series)"><i>Monkey Island</i></a>), but with an easier control scheme for home consoles. This particular genre basically originated on the Famicom game system, where games like <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2010/10/blog-post.html">the first <i>Tantei Jinguuji Saburou</i></a> (1987), Nintendo's own <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Famicom%20Detective%20Club%20%7C%20%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%83%9F%E3%82%B3%E3%83%B3%E6%8E%A2%E5%81%B5%E5%80%B6%E6%A5%BD%E9%83%A8"><i>Famicom Detective Club</i></a> (1988-1989) and <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2012/01/blog-post_06.html"><i>Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken</i></a> (1985) really solidified the genre and nowadays, games like <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Gyakuten%20Series%20%7C%20%E9%80%86%E8%BB%A2%E3%82%B7%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA"><i>Gyakuten Saiban</i>/<i>Ace Attorney</i></a> are still mostly based on these older games.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r40-pPh_Lsk/XFa_D8WgwgI/AAAAAAAAD_4/0mFMIuSbdKYWXHnGJHgQvtLQO66UxPPKgCLcBGAs/s1600/iseshima1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r40-pPh_Lsk/XFa_D8WgwgI/AAAAAAAAD_4/0mFMIuSbdKYWXHnGJHgQvtLQO66UxPPKgCLcBGAs/s1600/iseshima1.jpg" /></a></div><br />This is why I was so excited when the game <i>Ise-Shima Mystery Annai: Itsuwari no Kuroshinju</i> ("<i>The Ise-Shima Mystery Guide: The False Black Pearl</i>", Switch) was first announced. While this game was released in January 2019 for the Nintendo Switch, it was developed as an adventure game in the spirit of those old Famicom adventure games. In fact, the developers Happy Meal even noted that they could really just print the ROM on a cartridge and have it run on an actual Famicom if they wanted. As one can see from the graphics, the game really looks like one of those three-decade old videogames. The game looks especially a lot like <i>Okhotsk ni Kiyu</i>, an adventure game developed by <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Horii%20Yuuji%20%7C%20%E5%A0%80%E4%BA%95%E9%9B%84%E4%BA%8C">Horii Yuuji</a> (creator of the cultural phenomenon <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Quest"><i>Dragon Quest</i></a>). Horii developed three mystery adventure games for the PC in the 1980s, being <i>Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken</i>, <i>Okhotsk ni Kiyu</i> and <i>Karuizawa Yuukai Annai</i>, and the first two titles were also ported to the Famicom. What makes <i>Ise-Shima Mystery Annai: Itsuwari no Kuroshinju</i> visually interesting is that the character designs are made by Arai Kiyokazu, who also made the character designs for the Famicom port of <i>Okhotsk ni Kiyu</i>. So the game <i>really </i>looks like a Famicom adventure.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_MtqbgJmqyQ/XFa_D4IoY1I/AAAAAAAAD_8/HQikvYIYYZIDHsZLt7brGc3cyj2cag7lQCLcBGAs/s1600/iseshima2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="348" data-original-width="400" height="278" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_MtqbgJmqyQ/XFa_D4IoY1I/AAAAAAAAD_8/HQikvYIYYZIDHsZLt7brGc3cyj2cag7lQCLcBGAs/s320/iseshima2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />The story of <i>Ise-Shima Mystery Annai: Itsuwari no Kuroshinju</i><i> </i>is also quite similar to <i>Okhotsk ni Kiyu</i>. The game starts with the unnamed protagonist, who is a police detective, receiving a call from his young and energetic subordinate Ken, with the report that a body was discovered in Ueno Park in Tokyo. It is not clear whether the man had had an accident, or was killed, but initial investigation is also troubled by the fact the man was not carrying any identification. Eventually, the duo of police detectives manage to track down the man's luggage in a station locker, where they discover he was in the possession of a <i>kinchaku</i> bag (a kind of small pouch) with a beautiful black pearl inside. The faded writing on the <i>kinchaku</i> bag lead the detectives to the region <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ise-Shima">Ise-Shima</a>, a popular tourist destination thanks <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ise_Grand_Shrine">the Ise Grand Shrine</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meoto_Iwa">Meoto Iwa</a>, the fresh seafood and of course, pearl farms. The <i>kinchaku</i> bag seems to originate from a pearl farm of which the name starts with "Hama..." and the detectives this to be a hint to the identity of their corpse, but as they conduct their investigation, they slowly realize the murder might have to do with the luxury pearl farm Le Bijou, which has singlehandedly driven several traditional pearl farms to bankruptcy and is now slowly taking over Japan, and the foreign market with their newest black pearl.<br /><br />The first murder in Tokyo and then a hint that leads to a tourist destination in Japan, and the detectives also become friends with two women who are somehow connected to the case? Yep, <i>Ise-Shima Mystery Annai: Itsuwari no Kuroshinju</i><i> </i>is paying a lot of homage to <i>Okhotsk ni Kiyu</i>. The game really does play as an old Famicom detective adventure game, and people who enjoy games like <i>Famicom Detective Club</i> should really play this game. As a mystery game, you won't be doing much thinking of yourself (like those older games) and the story is more like a stereotypical two-hour suspense drama show, but that is of course <i>exactly</i> what this game is trying to be, and it succeeds really well in that sense. The game is more about following all the leads and being surprised by the sudden story developments rather than giving the player a chance to figure things out themselves (it's not like there are proper hints to who the murderer is) but it does a good job at dangling all kinds of mysterious events and suspicious characters in front of you. I wouldn't recommend the game to people really looking for an adventure game where you have to solve a case yourself, but man, I really, really want people who like Famicom adventures to play this, but it feels exactly like how it should. And that's even including the small annoyances: I never really liked the faux 3D mazes in <i>Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken </i>or the first two <i>Famicom Detective Clubs</i> and they weren't really fun here either, but yeah, it's part of the experience.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iAqZeAIEDlg/XFa_EDXYYzI/AAAAAAAAEAA/vpLghPMrrMkNbqTWiRUG7562681h3KdfgCLcBGAs/s1600/iseshima3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iAqZeAIEDlg/XFa_EDXYYzI/AAAAAAAAEAA/vpLghPMrrMkNbqTWiRUG7562681h3KdfgCLcBGAs/s1600/iseshima3.jpg" /></a></div><br /><i></i>While the game looks like a game from the eighties though, the game is set in contemporary times. In fact, you'll be using a smartphone command quite a few times over the course of the game to for example take pictures, search for directions to your next destination and even play minigames to pass the time. A nice touch to mix the "modern" with the "old". At one point, you even check online reviews of the local restaurants! Another great touch is the digital manual: in the pause menu you can find a manual like you used to get with videogames, even complete with empty pages for you to take down some memos! It's also here where you can listen to the <i>deliciously</i> eighties theme song of the game (also used in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGImSJWsLc8">the trailer</a>).<br /><br />By the way, I know sometimes (translations of) novels are delayed etc. after the initial announcement and release dates are shuffled, but I don't think I've ever seen it as bad as with this game. <i>Ise-Shima Mystery Annai: Itsuwari no Kuroshinju</i> was originally supposed to release in Fall 2017, on the Nintendo 3DS. Fall came, and went. After a long silence, the game was then supposed to release in early Spring 2018. And then it was announced it wouldn't be released on the 3DS anymore, but on the Nintendo Switch, but still within the year. And then a few days before 2018 would end, it was announced it would <i>finally</i> release on January 24, 2019. So that's like a fifteen month delay, and it was moved to another system too! That's like having a book announced, it releasing more than a year later <i>and also only as a book you can only read on VR glasses </i>or something like that.<br /><br />Anyway, you don't have to expect anything more but a 1980s Famicom adventure from <i>Ise-Shima Mystery Annai: Itsuwari no Kuroshinju</i>, but nothing less either. It feels <i>exactly</i> like one of those old games, including the somewhat simple story, but the game has a lot of charm (great music too!) and for those who enjoy those old Famicom mystery adventures, which have definitely left their mark on mystery videogames in general, <i>Ise-Shima Mystery Annai: Itsuwari no Kuroshinju </i>is a no-brainer.<br /><br /><i></i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Original Japanese title(s): 『伊勢志摩ミステリー案内 偽りの黒真珠』</span><br /><i></i>Ho-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-62387382248054502792019-02-02T00:00:00.000+01:002019-02-02T00:00:00.727+01:00The Secret of the Forgotten Cave<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"The bug is to make my fortune."</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"<i>The Gold Bug</i>"</span></div><br />Four years ago, I read <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2014/08/city-of-darkness.html">my first novel</a> written by <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Kim%20Nae-seong%20%7C%20%EA%B9%80%EB%82%B4%EC%84%B1%20%EF%BC%88%E9%87%91%E4%BE%86%E6%88%90%EF%BC%89">Kim Nae-seong</a> (1909-1957), who is commonly seen as the father of the Korean detective story. Kim was born one year before the Great Korean Empire was annexed by Japan, and thus he grew up during the period Korea was a colony of Japan. He moved to Japan, where he studied at the famous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waseda">Waseda University</a> in Tokyo. It was there that he made his debut as a mystery author in 1935 with the short story <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2015/10/platinum-rose.html"><i>Daenkei no Kagami</i></a>, published in the magazine <i>Purofiru</i> (<i>Profile</i>). The story was, of course, written in Japanese, and he'd publish a few more short stories in Japan (<a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2015/10/platinum-rose.html">reviews/details here</a>) and even meet with some of the major Japanese mystery authors of the period, like <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/search/label/Edogawa%20Rampo%20|%20%E6%B1%9F%E6%88%B8%E5%B7%9D%E4%B9%B1%E6%AD%A9">Edogawa Rampo</a>, before he returned to Korea where he'd continue his work in the genre (with stories written in Korean this time). Like Rampo, his stories often have a pulp detective adventure feel to them. His detective character <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/search/label/Yu%20Bu-ran%20%7C%20%E5%8A%89%E4%B8%8D%E4%BA%82">Yu Bu-ran</a> in fact is supposed to be named after <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/search/label/Maurice%20LeBlanc">(Maurice) Leblanc</a>, whose <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Arsene%20Lupin"><i>Lupin</i></a> novels are of course famous examples of pulpy detective adventure stories. For those interested, I also have <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2015/07/blog-post.html">an English translation of <i>Muma</i></a>, a non-series short horror-esque story by Kim.<br /><br />Oh, and a small note, I am not <i>completely</i> sure about the romanization of the names in this review. Most of them will be correct, but from the little I studied of the language, I know sometimes consonants will aspirate or change in other ways in certain combinations and with a name like Baekhui (白姫) for example, I have no idea whether that is the correct romanization, or whether it'd change to Baekkhui or Baekgui or something like that.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ht2Si7x_5tw/XFMR1qjVSgI/AAAAAAAAD_k/Mql54CCvLd8rXwaq2hsFnbkyit1NdQ40QCLcBGAs/s1600/shirokamen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="303" data-original-width="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ht2Si7x_5tw/XFMR1qjVSgI/AAAAAAAAD_k/Mql54CCvLd8rXwaq2hsFnbkyit1NdQ40QCLcBGAs/s1600/shirokamen.jpg" /></a></div>Earlier this month, a new translation of two of Kim's better known works was released in Japan. <i>Shirokamen</i> collects two juvenile mysteries written for the Korean audience by Kim in 1937-1938, which are in spirit quite like <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/search/label/Edogawa%20Rampo%20|%20%E6%B1%9F%E6%88%B8%E5%B7%9D%E4%B9%B1%E6%AD%A9">Edogawa Rampo</a>'s <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Shounen%20Tantei%20Dan%20%7C%20%E5%B0%91%E5%B9%B4%E6%8E%A2%E5%81%B5%E5%9B%A3"><i>Boys Detective Club</i></a> series. The first of these two stories is the titular <i>Shirokamen</i>, or in Korean <i>Baekgamyeon</i> ("<i>The White Mask</i>"), which is also considered <i>the</i> juvenile mystery title of 30s Korea. The White Mask from the title is a mysterious international thief who wears a white skull mask, who has been succesfully stealing all kinds of artifacts all over the world. Like any decent thief, he (or she!) is always kind enough to send a letter to his potential victims about what he will steal and when, and of course, the White Mask always succeeds despite all the precautions taken. London, New York and Paris have all become victim to the thief, and now the crook has gone to Korea. His latest victim is Professor Gang, the leading scientist of the country who has been working on a very secret project, which should never fall in the wrong hands. After a day at the circus with his son Sugil and his friend Daejun however, Professor Gang is kidnapped by the White Mask despite efforts of Sugil and Daejun. They quickly decide they need to help of the famous mystery author and detective Yu Bu-ran, but after learning he is out for a few days, they decide they themselves have to capture the White Mask. Professor Gang managed to drop his secret notebook with all the plans for his project during the kidnapping, which the children find, but the White Mask is quick to send them a letter to say he will be stealing the notebook from them that day.<br /><br />You can really tell this is an innocent children's adventure novel the moment you learn that Professor Gang actually wrote SECRET NOTEBOOK on the cover of his notebook.<br /><br />As a mystery novel <i>Baekgamyeon</i> is mainly about the adventure the boys have and less about the mystery solving. There are the usual <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Scooby%20Doo"><i>Scooby-Doo!</i></a> shenanigans like wild chases and disguises and an overdramatic narrator who addresses the reader every three or four sentences about how mysterious or baffling events are. The few "mysterious" events (including the disappearance of the secret notebook from the custody of Daejun) are unlikely truly to surprise the (adult) reader, but the adventures Sugil and Daejun have as assistants of Yu Bu-ran are entertaining enough for the juvenile reader. Though I am not quite sure about Yu Bu-ran's qualities as a detective in charge of his own Baker Street Irregulars. At more than a few times it seems like Yu Bu-ran's <i>really</i> bad at taking care of children. During a chase scene with the White Mask for example, he decides to delegate the remainder of the chase to the two children (this happens literally mid-chase), while he himself goes off to do some research within the comforts of his own home. I'm pretty sure that normally, you should not leave two kids to chase after a dangerous thief so you can go home. Yu Bu-ran and the kids have a few skirmishes with the White Mask across the length of the fairly short novel and while eventually, we'll learn the true goal of the phantom thief which is a bit more than meets the eye, there's just too little depth to the novel to truly impress. It's fairly fun as a children's mystery adventure novel, but it doesn't ever leave <i>Scooby-Doo!</i> territory.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZwMPwhQ-uJU/XFMSb2ZIouI/AAAAAAAAD_s/a7spLPA04348TuWq975l7GlPSvEJf90ywCLcBGAs/s1600/shirokamen2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="377" data-original-width="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZwMPwhQ-uJU/XFMSb2ZIouI/AAAAAAAAD_s/a7spLPA04348TuWq975l7GlPSvEJf90ywCLcBGAs/s1600/shirokamen2.jpg" /></a></div>The second story in this volume is titled <i>Hwanggeumgul</i> ("<i>The Golden Cave</i>") and starts at an orphanage. Baekhui is a young girl who has been put in the orphanage after the death of her father, and there she becomes friends with the boy Hakjun. She tells Hakjun about the Buddha statue she got from her father before he died. According to her father, he used to travel the world when he was young and one day, he was near the Himalayas when he came across a wounded woman riding a horse on the run for some pursuers. He quickly disguised himself as the woman and hid her, and rode off on the horse to lure the pursuers away. When he came back, he found the woman had died of her injuries, but not without leaving a letter for Baekhui's father, expressing her gratitude for his kind act. She also explained she was of the Kshatriyas caste in India, and that her pursuers were after a family treasure. The hint to the location was hidden within the Buddha statue she left Baekhui's father. After telling this story to Hakjun, the two dream of finding the treasure themselves to help out all orphans, but to Baekhui's great shock, she learns some suspicious Indians have been hanging out near the orphanage. Hakjun goes out to investigate, but never comes back, so Baekhui tells everything to the director of the orphanage, who immediately seeks help with Yu Bu-ran in order to find Hakjun and find Baekhui's treasure.<br /><br />Yep, this is a treasure hunt story, and as such, has even fewer mystery elements than the first story. This is an all-out adventure and while the hint to the location of the treasure is in code and needs the mind of Yu Bu-ran to be solved, it's not a fair code as it alludes to completely fictional locations and therefore not solvable to the reader. What remains is a rather kooky treasure hunt story where Yu Bu-ran once again proves <i>he should never be in charge of children</i>. Over the course of the story, we learn a group of Indians is after the treasure (and because there are absolutely no other Indians in Korea, every Indian our heroes come across belongs to the criminal group). But what does Yu Bu-ran do? He has Baekhui and Hakjun <i>and even more children from the orphanage</i> tag along as he chases a group of adult Indian criminals across the sea who have already proven earlier in the story they aren't afraid to kill. And then there's a part where there's a shoot-out on an island, and where Yu Bu-ran first tells Baekhui to watch how he'll shoot down one of the Indians, then boasts to the little girl how much fun that was, and when the girl says she's scared (as they are in a friggin' shoot-out), Yu Bu-ran tells her to watch closely again as he'll shoot another Indian.<br /><br />Yep, Yu Bu-ran is the bad guy here.<br /><br />I wouldn't say the two novellettes collected in this volume are required reading. They're obviously juvenile mysteries (for the younger part of this group) and they work work enough as such, even if nothing outstanding per se. But I definitely had more fun with the other works by Kim Nae-seong I read earlier, and a novel like <i>Main</i> for example also invokes the adventure novel spirit, but is a bit more engaging than these shorter tales. Considering their similarities with Edogawa Rampo's <i>Boys Detective Club</i> novels however and their position as both works of the father of the Korean mystery story, and as important juvenile mysteries from 30s Korea, it might be interesting to read these books if you want to learn more about those topics.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Original Korean title(s):김내성 （金來成）《백가면과 황금굴(白仮面&amp;黄金窟》</span>Ho-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-85754638395165248722019-01-30T00:00:00.002+01:002019-01-30T00:00:01.687+01:00Turnabout Big Top<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"<span class="st">Off with their heads!"</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="st">"<i>Alice's Adventures in Wonderland</i>"&nbsp;</span></span> </div><br />I got the e-book version of this book, but I <i>hate</i> clowns, so I'm not going to use that cover here. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r4Xo-UwhZbc/W0877STFCeI/AAAAAAAADt8/F2P7iR05Xc02FBunoKPXnU4jv-tXbKE1QCLcBGAs/s1600/headless1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="294" data-original-width="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r4Xo-UwhZbc/W0877STFCeI/AAAAAAAADt8/F2P7iR05Xc02FBunoKPXnU4jv-tXbKE1QCLcBGAs/s1600/headless1.jpg" /></a></div>It was on a hot, nay, a very hot day when stage magician The Great Merlini and writer Ross Harte were melting inside Merlini's magic shop, when a woman stormed inside, determined to buy Merlini's Headless Lady act right at once. The fact she doesn't accept no for an answer rouses Merlini's interests who is willing to part with the one show model left if she can explain what this is all about, but she refuses. The woman is obviously being tailed by someone, and Merlini and Harte try their hand at finding out who is stalking the prospective client, but when the two return to the shop, they find the Headless Lady act has been stolen (even if money was left behind). Some words spoken by the woman however give The Great Merlini enough of a hint to guess where she and the Headless Lady might be, so the two head out to the Mighty Hannum Combined Shows circus, owned by Major Hannum. Or to be precise: the late Major Hannum, as he has died in a curious car accident the day before. Making use of his old friendships with many of the performers at the circus, Merlini not only learns where his Headless Lady is and who the woman was who stole it from him, but he also starts to suspect that Major Hannum's accident wasn't an accident and that more deaths may follow. His hunch proves to be correct, as more curious events happen like a horrible accident during an act and even the disappearence of the performer of the Headless Lady in <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Clayton%20Rawson">Clayton Rawson</a>'s <i>The Headless Lady</i> (1940).<br /><br />I never read books in order, so this is the first time I read a full novel starring Rawson's stage magician detective <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Great%20Merlini">The Great Merlini</a> (named after Rawson's own stage name as a magician), even though this is the third novel. I have read the short story collection <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2015/06/magic-of-word.html"><i>The Great Merlini: The Complete Stories of the Magician Detective</i></a> by the way, which featured some very impressive impossible crimes, though do note that <i>The Headless Lady</i> isn't an impossible crime mystery.<br /><br />Was <i>The Headless Lady</i> a good mystery novel though? I have to say I was a bit disappointed when I finished the novel. Not that it is bad: the 'problem' is that <i>The Headless Lady </i>is rather average. The first few chapters are perhaps the most fun: The Great Merlini and Harte find themselves in the crazy world of circus performers, and making use of his own experience as a stage magician, Rawson goes all out with the circus lingo. The parts where Merlini speaks with his fellow performers in impossible-to-decipher slang are quite entertaining, with Harte desperate for an interpreter of this nightmare of the English language. The circus world is given life in these pages, providing an interesting setting for the mystery. One funny thing to note is that there's a suspicious mystery author character in this novel, who goes by the <i>very</i> familiar name of <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Clayton%20Rawson">Stuart Towne</a>...<br /><br />But the mystery is rather... bland. There are a few seperate threads of plot that Merlini and Harte chase after: the curious car accident of the Major, an nasty accident during a performance because the lights suddenly went out, the disappearance of the Headless Lady. Yet none of them are <i>really</i> interesting as mysteries taken on their own. One incident happens, Merlini and Harte ask some questions here and there, and then the next incident happens, and the previous one is hardly given any attention anymore.&nbsp; That happens several times, so none of the incidents are really given enough consideration, and after a while, you start losing interest, because apparently, the plot too doesn't deem them interesting enough. I'm not asking for an impossible crime though. I'd just like the plot to not constantly replace one minor mystery with another one, without really fleshing out the previous one. In the end, none of these mysteries really manage to impress, as most of it is awfully familiar. The answers to some questions are basically nothing more than "yeah, anything could've done it, but they were the ones", but the conundrum revolving around the Headless Lady utilizes the setting well as a nice piece of misdirection, even if it's rather simple. So again, <i>The Headless Lady</i> isn't a bad mystery novel per se, but it does lack something that really makes it stand on its own besides the circus setting.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XhYYEBQTYAw/W0877XidjwI/AAAAAAAADt4/p-M8fMO2kcoYJaA53O_56jLd33d1A_a8ACLcBGAs/s1600/headless2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="254" data-original-width="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XhYYEBQTYAw/W0877XidjwI/AAAAAAAADt4/p-M8fMO2kcoYJaA53O_56jLd33d1A_a8ACLcBGAs/s1600/headless2.jpg" /></a></div><br />Speaking of that, this photograph of Clayton Rawson with the Headless Girl is pretty famous. "Olga the Headless Girl" was a sideshow act by a "Doctor" Heineman who also performed at the New York World's Fair in 1939. The picture of Rawson and Olga was taken then, and <i>The Headless Lady</i> would be published one year later.<br /><br />Japanese mystery author <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/search/label/Awasaka%20Tsumao%20|%20%E6%B3%A1%E5%9D%82%E5%A6%BB%E5%A4%AB">Awasaka Tsumao</a> was also a stage magician, similar to Clayton Rawson, and has used similar settings. His <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2011/12/now-you-see-him.html"><i>Soga Kajou</i></a> short stories also feature a stage magician as a detective, while stage magic and/or circus performances also played an important role in his novels <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2017/08/the-vanishing-magician.html"><i>11 Mai no Trump</i></a> (a masterpiece!) and <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-haunted-showboat.html"><i>Kigeki Hikigeki</i></a>. Game designer <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/search/label/Takumi%20Shuu%20%7C%20%E5%B7%A7%E8%88%9F">Takumi Shuu</a>, who is not only an amateur magician himself, but also an open fan of Awasaka, would also utilize the circus setting in an episode in the second entry in his <a href="http://takumi/"><i>Gyakuten Saiban</i>/<i>Ace Attorney</i></a> series. Others that come to mind are some of the <i><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Hoshikage%20Ryuuzou%20%7C%20%E6%98%9F%E5%BD%B1%E9%BE%8D%E4%B8%89">Hoshikage Ryuuzou</a></i> short stories by A<a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Ayukawa%20Tetsuya%20%7C%20%E9%AE%8E%E5%B7%9D%E5%93%B2%E4%B9%9F">yukawa Tetsuya</a> and <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2014/10/a-riddle-for-puppets.html">that excellent impossible crime short</a> by <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Abiko%20Takemaru%20%7C%20%E6%88%91%E5%AD%AB%E5%AD%90%E6%AD%A6%E4%B8%B8">Abiko Takemaru</a>. None of these stories go all-out with circus lingo like <i>The Headless Lady</i> does though.<br /><br />So <i>The Headless Lady</i> isn't a bad mystery. However, it also has little to truly set it apart, aside from the circus setting that does truly come to life thanks to Rawson's writing. As a mystery however, <i>The Headless Lady</i> lacks true inspiration and surprises, making especially the mid-part of the novel rather slow and dull, with little to keep the reader entertained in an intellectual manner.Ho-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-35659256339640419442019-01-23T00:00:00.001+01:002019-01-23T00:00:01.972+01:00The House of Dreams<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Some there be that shadows kiss;&nbsp;</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Such have but a shadow's bliss. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"<i>The Merchant of Venice</i>" </span></div><br />Sometimes I don't read Dutch mystery novels for years, sometimes I read them one after another... (Yes, the reviews are posted more than a month apart, but I read today's book right after I read <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/12/a-matter-of-form.html"><i>De gast van kamer 13</i></a>)<br /><br /><u>Books by <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/search/label/Jan%20Apon">Jan Apon</a></u> <br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><u><i>Raoul Bertin</i> series</u><br /><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2014/07/rhythm-and-police.html"><i>Paniek op de Miss Brooklyn</i></a> ("<i>Panic on the Miss Brooklyn</i>", 1934)</span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>De man in de schaduw</i> ("<i>The Man in the Shadows</i>", 1936)&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/12/a-matter-of-form.html"><i>De gast van kamer 13</i></a> ("<i>The Guest in Room 1</i>3", 1938)</span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2013/12/the-secret-adversary.html"><i>Een tip van Brissac</i></a> ("<i>A tip from Brissac</i>", 1940)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><u>Rudolf Temesvary series</u></span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2014/08/never-ape-apeman.html"><i>Het gorilla-mysterie</i></a> ("<i>The Gorilla Mystery</i>", 1937) </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><u>Non-series</u></span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2014/05/the-house-of-lurking-death.html"><i>Een zekere Manuel</i></a> ("<i>A certain Manuel</i>", 1935)</span><br /><br /><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1e8HDlvoeHo/Wz-36D0M8oI/AAAAAAAADs8/cMb1plAL054TPopU1haP2Bt0yJW2s80GwCLcBGAs/s1600/manschaduw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="301" data-original-width="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1e8HDlvoeHo/Wz-36D0M8oI/AAAAAAAADs8/cMb1plAL054TPopU1haP2Bt0yJW2s80GwCLcBGAs/s1600/manschaduw.jpg" /></a>The narrator of <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Jan%20Apon">Jan Apon</a>'s <i>De man in de schaduw</i> ("<i>The Man in the Shadows</i>", 1936) Dr. Capelli, and his friend and accomlished writer Paul Posseck make their way to the home of Count Armanov, who is entertaining several guests there, including the film-maker Leslie Huntington and his new star actress Bella Berry. Leslie will be making a new film based on a book by Paul, starring Bella, so the two head over there to have some discussions with him. At least, that is the pre-text, because Paul confesses to Dr. Capelli that many, many years ago, he and Bella used to be lovers. They eventually seperated, but he never really got over her, and this is the perfect time to meet her again, even though he knows about the rumors that Leslie is having an affair with Bella. On their way to the count's home, the two also discover that Leslie's wife Joan is having her share of affairs too, so when they arrive at the home, they already sense that not all's as joyful as seems. Capelli and Paul too are offered a stay at the Count's and the first night ends well with some social mingling and a visit to the casino until the early hours, but soon after their return, a gunshot rings from the room of Leslie. When Dr. Capelli barges in the room, he finds both Bella and Paul standing in shock near the body of Leslie. Someone shot Leslie from the entrance of the room, but who? It's Inspector Raoul Bertin of the Sûreté who has to untangle the complex relations of the people in the Armanov home and figure out who's the murderer before more victims fall.<br /><br />A few weeks ago, I reviewed another novel by Dutch writer/translator/radio script writer/actor <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Jan%20Apon">Jan Apon</a>, and noted that that novel was probably the second or third novel starring his series detective <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Raoul%20Bertin%20series">Raoul Bertin</a>. I wasn't sure at the time, because while Apon's output in mystery novels isn't large by any means, the books are difficult to get a hold off, and the little information about on them available on the internet was already proven wrong when I actually read a few of them. Anyway, I'm glad I can make this part of Dutch mystery history a bit clearer now: <i>De man in de schaduw </i>is the second novel starring Raoul Bertin, and also a prequel: whereas the other three Raoul Bertin novels are about his exploits <i>after</i> he quit his job at the Sûreté, this novel has him as an active member of the police force (meeting with Dr. Capelli, the narrator, for the first time). None of the other books spoil this one as far as I remember by the way, so then can be read in any order.<br /><br />The set-up of the novel is as classic as you can get: a group of people who are friends on the surface, all gathered in one house when a murder happens, and of course there's been a recent bargain sale on murder motives and everyone acts enigmatically or suspiciously. I have to admit I liked the premise of some of the other novels better, like the mystery of the cursed record of <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2014/07/rhythm-and-police.html"><i>Paniek op de Ms. Brooklyn</i></a> or the hotel room with the constant deaths of <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/12/a-matter-of-form.html"><i>De gast in kamer 13</i></a>. These novels also followed a classic set-up eventually, but managed to have a hook with just a bit of extra allure, while <i>De man in de schaduw</i> has little to set itself apart in terms of premise.<br /><br />Everytime I review an Apon novel, I mention how his novels are always entertaining enough as a mystery stories, but that for some reason, he always plays a bit unfair with the clues, as most of the most damning clues are always withheld from the reader, until Bertin unveils that he found what were basically signed confessions of the murderer lying around. It's not <i>that</i> bad this time, though elements like the motive could've been telegraphed better in advance. Guessing who did it won't be difficult this time, which is actually true for most Apon novels: while Apon might not be always playing fair with clues, there are usually enough clues, or other forms of foreshadowing that are easy to pick up. The plots are usually entertaining though, and <i>De man in de schaduw</i> works <i>most</i> of the time. The identity of the culprit becomes painfully clear after a certain event in the novel, but the whole thing is plotted in a reasonable way with all kinds of small mysteries for the reader to solve (even if <i>again</i>, not everything is fairly telegraphed in advance).<br /><br />I did find it a shame that the floorplans provided weren't <i>really</i> needed for this novel. I remember <i>De gast van kamer 13</i> had a simple floorplan of the hotel too. While both floorplans did make the layout of the respective buildings a bit clearer, they weren't necessary to solve the main mysteries, and the narration alone would've been enough. Of course, <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-quest-of-missing-map.html">I <i>do</i> get more excited when we get floorplans</a>, but it's the most fun when you actually need to stare at them to solve the murder, right? <br /><br />Anyway, I am fairly sure that <i>De man in de schaduw</i> was the last <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Raoul%20Bertin%20series"><i>Raoul Bertin</i> novel</a> I needed to read, and this might be the last time I review Apon here. Apon has written a few other novels too, but I believe they are more like thrillers than detective novels, so I'm not particularly tempted to go after these books, especially as these books aren't easy to find. <i>De man in de schaduw</i><i> </i>is at any rate a classically set-up mystery novel, that does suffer from the usual Apon faults, but it's overall a fairly entertaining mystery novel.<br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Original Dutch title(s): Jan Apon "<i>De man in de schaduw</i>"</span><br /><i></i>Ho-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-67156740365011720132019-01-20T12:00:00.000+01:002019-01-20T16:30:10.269+01:00The Adventure of the Wary Witness<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">「スタート！その時だった。僕の頭に新しいスタートという言葉が思い浮かんだ。」</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">『語り＠学校』（爆笑レッドシアターコント）</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"Start! Then it came to me. The words Fresh Start popped up in my head."</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"<i>Narration @ School</i>" (<i>Bakushou Red Theater</i> sketch)</span></div><br />There exists a very lively market for self-published material (<i>doujin</i>) in Japan, ranging from <i>doujin</i> fanzines, comics, music, games to anything you can think off. I myself have dabbled very little with doujin material here though. Most recently I did review the three volumes of the excellent mystery manga <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Sharaku%20Homura%20%7C%20%E6%80%AA%E5%A5%87%E6%8E%A2%E5%81%B5%E3%83%BB%E5%86%99%E6%A5%BD%E7%82%8E"><i>Kaiki Tantei Sharaku Homura</i></a>, which were originally published as doujin<i> </i>comics (they are now available digitally through a major publisher). In terms of games, I only tried a few, being two installments of <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Flower%20Bridge%20Infinity">Flower Bridge Infinity</a>'s <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Akito%20Date%20%7C%20%E3%82%A2%E3%82%AD%E3%83%88Date%E3%82%B7%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA"><i>Akito Date</i></a> series and <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2015/11/fire-walk-with-me.html"><i>Rengoku - Kamaitachi no Yoru 2 Another</i></a>, a fan-sequel to the original <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Kamaitachi%20no%20Yoru%20%7C%20%E3%81%8B%E3%81%BE%E3%81%84%E3%81%9F%E3%81%A1%E3%81%AE%E5%A4%9C"><i>Kamaitachi no Yoru</i></a> videogame. Today, I try another <i>doujin </i>game.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9jfoKyxHStA/XERJ6Yx1oMI/AAAAAAAAD-4/n1OhS88ovKUlqLatao4WLPx2LO3CTvIzgCLcBGAs/s1600/adc4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9jfoKyxHStA/XERJ6Yx1oMI/AAAAAAAAD-4/n1OhS88ovKUlqLatao4WLPx2LO3CTvIzgCLcBGAs/s1600/adc4.jpg" /></a></div><br /><i>Armchair Detective</i> is a mystery videogame in development for PC, iOS/Android by the doujin circle ADVangelist. <a href="https://automaton-media.com/articles/reportjp/armchair-detective-play-report-in-dejigehaku-2016/">An interview about this game</a> dating from 2016 states that ADVangelists'&nbsp;Zeroaya was actually just a senior in high school at the time, so the developer/writer behind this game is quite young, but it sure doesn't mean you should underestimate this game! The full game is slated to be a 5-episode long game but <a href="https://www.freem.ne.jp/win/game/18888">the first episode was released in November 2018 as freeware</a> with the title <i>Armchair Detective</i> <i>Case.1 </i>(subsequent cases are not scheduled to be freeware). You take up the role of Makina Mirai, a college student who has a part-time job as a secretary/assistant/help at the Kusanagi Detective Agency. Kusanagi Shiina took the agency over from his father and is a somewhat messy, but ultimately extremely sharp private detective, who even enjoys the patronage of the police. In this first episode, Mirai is lamenting the fact no clients have been coming to the agency (meaning no pay for her), when Gousawa Kenji, a befriended police detective appears with a job for Kusanagi, but it happens to be one that utterly shocks Mirai, as she learns that her landlord, Nishijima Hiroaki, was killed last night. The elderly Nishijima ran the little Nishijima Home Appliances, while also renting two rooms out in the back of the building (one to Mirai). Last night, Mirai stayed at the agency for a big clean-up, but Gousawa himself happened to be visiting Nishijima Home Appliances for a purchase, but a loud scream followed by a power failure brought him to the second floor, leading to the discovery of the body of Nishijima, who had been beaten to death by one of the urns from his collection. Gousawa has now gathered all the people who were on the premise around the time of the murder at the agency, as Kusanagi specializes in "group interrogations". Mirai however says she wants to solve this case to avenge her landlord's death.<br /><br /><i>Armchair Detective</i> <i>Case.1</i> is a good example of a game that does not try to reinvent the wheel for the nth time, but cleverly makes use of tried-and-true game mechanics for mystery adventure games, combining them to create a somewhat familiar, yet satisfying experience. The game revolves around two major mechanics that make up the mechanic of "crowd interrogation": zapping between multiple testimonies at the same time, and following up on certain statements by pointing out contradictions. Both these concepts should sound familiar to mystery adventure gamers. "Zapping" between various bodies of text is what made games like <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.jp/2012/09/blog-post.html"><i>428</i></a> and <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2013/12/sophisticate.html"><i>Machi</i></a> so unique, as you had to "zap" between 5-8 narratives starring different characters, and guide each of these narratives to their ending, while keeping an eye on how one event in narrative A could also impact the developments of narrative B, C or more. Zapping between the various perspectives also allowed you to learn clues from various angles (some characters could learn about X, some about Y), and carefully puzzling all the various narratives together could be a very satisfying mechanic. Meanwhile, pointing out contradictions in testimony through evidence in order to push the narrative forward as a game mechanic has been <i>the</i> invention of the <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Gyakuten%20Series%20%7C%20%E9%80%86%E8%BB%A2%E3%82%B7%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA"><i>Gyakuten Saiban</i>/<i>Ace Attorney</i></a> series and has since been a very popular game mechanic in detective games, and is utilized in for example the <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Danganronpa%20%7C%20%E3%83%80%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AC%E3%83%B3%E3%83%AD%E3%83%B3%E3%83%91"><i>Danganronpa</i></a> series.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-drPFPYmtgLQ/XERJ5bN5DSI/AAAAAAAAD-w/xcIFvCJU7UYENKanw6tmDZvU9buL_VuEwCLcBGAs/s1600/adc3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-drPFPYmtgLQ/XERJ5bN5DSI/AAAAAAAAD-w/xcIFvCJU7UYENKanw6tmDZvU9buL_VuEwCLcBGAs/s1600/adc3.jpg" /></a></div><br />After a short introduction to the characters and the initial set-up in the prologue of <i>Armchair Detective</i> <i>Case.1</i>, you'll be allowed to read trough the testimonies of all the witnesses/suspects. These testimonies are presented not in the form of dialogue, of the witness telling Mirai directly what happened, but are shown in the style of a novel video game, with third person prose projected on a background, with music/sound effects accompanying the text (no character art is shown in these parts). Each of these testimonies is divided in chapters, and you can zap (switch) between the testimonies of all four witnesses. These novel parts are written in the third person, but one has to be really careful here: each of these novel parts are solely based on the testimonies of the respective witness, so it is quite possible that they are misremembering or confusing things, or even intentionally lying. Each of these testimonies must thus be treated as individual texts by unreliable narrators. This is also shown very ingeniously through the presentation in the game, for whenever you "leave" the current testimony, the screen will zoom out to show the characters discussing the testimony, which itself is also projected on a seperate television. This emphasizes that what you are reading is nothing more but an interpretation of what happened, as told by that particular witness.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VSeT8IcOVDQ/XERJ5pOULyI/AAAAAAAAD-0/sstKRI-QdSYh81LnAQZzXo--HiS1E4-BQCLcBGAs/s1600/adc2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VSeT8IcOVDQ/XERJ5pOULyI/AAAAAAAAD-0/sstKRI-QdSYh81LnAQZzXo--HiS1E4-BQCLcBGAs/s1600/adc2.jpg" /></a></div><br />As you progress in each testimony, you'll pick up certain key phrases that are saved seperately in a record. You can click on these words to learn more about them (the banter by the characters about these words can be funny, but also contain hints of how to proceed). As said, testimonies can contain mistakes, sometimes by accident, sometimes by intent. At times, the memories of the witness can just be too unreliable, and they can't proceed without something to jog their mind. The key phrases are used at these points to move the story forward. For example, the first witness Gousawa states early on he was asleep, but was suddenly awakened by a loud noise. In the testimony of another person, you learn that at that same time, they were having a fight with their girlfriend. You can these use the key phrase about the fight they had on Gousawa's testimony, who then remembers it was the noise from their fight that awakened him, and then he continues his testimony. This is similiar to the story blocks in games like <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.jp/2012/09/blog-post.html"><i>428</i></a> and <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2013/12/sophisticate.html"><i>Machi</i></a>, where one narrative can only proceed if you do something else first in a different narrative. But the key phrases are also used to point out contradictions in the testimonies. Person A might be lying for example, but a key phrase gained from Person B's testimony can prove the lie. Once you have correctly pointed out a lie, the witness will usually change their testimony (sometimes whole chapters are completely altered), which of course eventually leads to new key phrases that allows you to uncover other lies. Like in <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Gyakuten%20Series%20%7C%20%E9%80%86%E8%BB%A2%E3%82%B7%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA"><i>Ace Attorney</i></a>, you'll eventually figure out who of the four committed the murder by eliminating all the contradictions you come across.<br /><br />What makes this in a way more complex than <i>Ace Attorney</i> is that you're juggling multiple contradiction-filled testimonies at the same time. In <i>Ace Attorney</i>, you're always faced with one single loop of 5-6 parts long, with which you can interact with a list of evidence to point out a contradiction. In <i>Armchair Detective</i> <i>Case.1, </i>you're juggling four seperate loops of 10-15 chapters long simultaneously. You can mostly choose the order in which you tackle them yourself, but in order to proceed with all testimonies, you'll have to switch narratives a few times, as you'll need to gather the correct key phrases that allow you point out contradictions/force someone to continue with their testimony from other testimonies. So there's a lot more you have think about. That coupled with the fact the testimonies themselves are not only longer, but also more likely to contain big lies, and you're left with plenty to consider as you try to figure out this puzzle (though this first case does help you out a lot).<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F-wr_ozajtU/XERJ5CAWsFI/AAAAAAAAD-s/hof-792rQxU8_xVMWnj2tn7jA8LeeaHUgCLcBGAs/s1600/adc1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F-wr_ozajtU/XERJ5CAWsFI/AAAAAAAAD-s/hof-792rQxU8_xVMWnj2tn7jA8LeeaHUgCLcBGAs/s1600/adc1.jpg" /></a></div><br /><i></i>As for the mystery plot itself, it's a fairly small scale story and as a tutorial case, it does hold your hand quite a bit, but there's some nice moments where you realize some persons have been telling big lies for a few chapters, and trying to fit the contradicting parts of the four testimonies together can be fun. The identity of the culprit is a bit easy to guess, but the game does a good job at really using all the discoveries you made during the whole case to prove how they did it. This first chapter also contains multiple hints and references to a greater story, which will no doubt be the driving force for the whole game.<br /><br />I also have to say, I was quite impressed with the presentation of this freeware game! Like the little thing with the testimonies projected on the television set I mentioned before, these little touches ADVangelist added to the game all quickly add up to give this first chapter a really polished feel. The division on pure novel part and parts where the character art is shown is also a rather inspired concept I think, as it really sets the testimonies apart as seperate texts which you can't trust.<br /><br />So yeah, the two hours or so <i>Armchair Detective</i> <i>Case.1</i> takes were spent very well, and with pleasure. This first chapter was released in November, but I have no idea what the projected release schedule is for the rest of the game. This beginning however really impressed me, and I am quite interested to see how the full story will unfold and how the zapping contradiction mechanic will be fleshed out in later chapters, so I hope the full game gets finished, and perhaps released on consoles (because I usually don't play games on my laptop). I already posted the link above, but just to make sure: <a href="https://www.freem.ne.jp/win/game/18888"><i>Armchair Detective</i> <i>Case. 1 </i>can be downloaded as freeware from Freem!</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Original Japanese title(s): 『Armchair Detective Case.1』</span>Ho-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-65547402036668000792019-01-19T00:00:00.000+01:002019-01-19T00:00:02.403+01:00The Bicycle Thief<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">平坦であれ曲がりくねってようと</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">クルクルとまわる自転車のタイヤのもよう</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">「Over Blow」(Garnet Crow)</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Stay level</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Like the tire tracks of a bicycle turning round and round even as they make a curve</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"<i>Over Blow</i>" (Garnet Crow)</span></div><br />Perhaps I should only read the best/recommended stories in this series and the regular <i>Q.E.D.</i> and skip the rest. At least the stories are never spread across multiple volumes like in <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Meitantei%20Conan%20%7C%20%E5%90%8D%E6%8E%A2%E5%81%B5%E3%82%B3%E3%83%8A%E3%83%B3"><i>Detective Conan</i></a> and <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Kindaichi%20Shounen%20no%20Jikenbo%20%7C%20%E9%87%91%E7%94%B0%E4%B8%80%E5%B0%91%E5%B9%B4%E3%81%AE%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%B6%E7%B0%BF"><i>Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo</i></a>! And huh, I actually expected more comments on my recent reviews of <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2019/01/springtime-crime.html">that one unique Chinese mystery novel</a>, or <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2019/01/stop-clock.html">the highly entertaining alibi-cracking devoted short story collection</a>... I never seem to be able to guess beforehand which reviews attract more commentators &gt;_&gt;<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zMSRcouJVlU/XD3pALlT8zI/AAAAAAAAD-g/R2HhrA_1PpUiTvk-n8jiWbFo2oo3CEvAQCLcBGAs/s1600/qediff3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zMSRcouJVlU/XD3pALlT8zI/AAAAAAAAD-g/R2HhrA_1PpUiTvk-n8jiWbFo2oo3CEvAQCLcBGAs/s1600/qediff3.jpg" /></a></div>Some months ago, I picked up the first three volumes of <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Katou%20Motohiro%20%7C%20%E5%8A%A0%E8%97%A4%E5%85%83%E6%B5%A9">Katou Motohiro</a>'s manga <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Q.E.D.%20Shoumei%20Shuuryou"><i>Q.E.D. iff Shoumei Shuuryou</i></a> ("<i>Q.E.D. iff Quod Erat Demonstrandum</i>"). I have already reviewed the first two volumes (<a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/10/a-question-of-proof.html">here</a> and <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-perfect-plot.html">here</a>), and I have in general found this continuation of the <i>Q.E.D.</i> <i>Shoumei Shuuryou</i> series to be more or less what I had expected from it, based on what I had already seen and read of the original series. In terms of story structure, it's definitely exactly the same: each volume of <i>iff</i> contains two stories,&nbsp; both a "conventional" murder mystery story as well as a non-murder detective story starring the brilliant high school student Touma Sou and his classmate Kana. The third volume, originally released in 2016, too follows this pattern. The opening story is titled <i>The Three Assassins</i> and first introduces us to three different women who find themselves in probably the worst time in their lives. All three women have been swindled out of their money: one lost all the money she had saved to open her own shop to a marriage swindler, another woman lost her father's apple garden and the last woman saw the money she saved for her son's studies disappear in "investments". It won't surprise the reader much that all these women have been the victim of the same man: Yamaguchi Kenji. Fraud is how the president of Art Finance Yamaguchi makes a living, and in the case of the three women, he even made sure he's <i>personally</i> liable for the money they gave him, as he actually doesn't own a penny. His house and assets are all, on paper, property of his company, and a lawsuit targeting him wouldn't return their money anyway. Driven by their hate, all three women appear at an art auction party at Yamaguchi's house, and unbeknownst to each other, they all share one goal: to kill Yamaguchi.<br /><br />It so happens that both Touma and Kana are present at the auction party too. An acquaintance of Kana was swindled out of their precious plate too, and Kana has dragged Touma along in order to retrieve the plate. At the same time, all the three women proceed their own plans to kill of Yamaguchi... and all three manage to succeed? This story is built solely around the premise that we follow the murder schemes of all three women in an inverted mystery story style, and that at the end, we see all three women succeed with their plans. Which of course <i>can't</i> be the case, because as much as they would like to do it over and over again, usually a man can only be killed <i>once</i>, and not <i>thrice</i>. What makes this case even stranger that eventually the body is found in the pool, rather than the study where the body was left after the murder was first discovered. At one hand, I think the <i>idea</i> behind this story is interesting, as the core mystery is fairly alluring, revolving around the question of how all three murder plans could've succeeded at the same time with just the one and same victim, but it's also <i>awfully</i> easy to guess what more or less must have happened, given the details we are given for all three plans, as none of them are really complex, and it isn't very hard to combine the scarce elements from all three plans to arrive at what actually happened.<br /><br />The second story in this volume is titled <i>Bicycle Thief</i> and has Touma receiving a call from the past. He is asked to be the witness to the demolition of a certain house in a small, rural village where he spent a few weeks six years ago. Six years ago, Touma was still living in the United States, but as school ends early there, his parents took him back to Japan to experience a month of Japanese school, figuring it'd be good for him. During this time in the village, Touma became friends with Sawaihara Akiyuki and even got hired by Akiyuki's brother Takahiko for a part time job, doing menial jobs for the local elderly like cutting weed or watering the plants. Takahiko's place, where he also ran his little business, is now slated to be demolished. Takahiko himself has been traveling the world on a bicycle for years now, and he only returned to this house once in a while to leave souvenirs, but nobody has seen him in all those years.&nbsp; For some reason, Touma's sign is needed for the demolition company to carry through with taking down the house. As he tells Kana and his other classmates about his time i this village six years ago, Touma also recounts a minor incident that happened during his stay. One day, he found a bicycle in the bushes while he was cutting weeds. The bicycle had been stolen from the bicycle shop earlier and as there had been a witness who claimed they saw a child taking the bicycle, Touma was accused by the police of having stolen the bicycle himself. The thief was never caught, which surprises Kana, but Touma reveals that while the police never managed to trace who the real thief was, he himself knew who stole the bicycle and more importantly, why.<br /><br />Hmm, a somewhat weird story. It's mostly a recount of events as Touma experienced in the past, and then suddenly Touma reveals he already knew who the thief was and why. There are some interesting elements: there is not only a false solution which seems fairly convincing, but also a <i>hidden</i> crime within this story, which is quite deviously hidden within the narrative, though the clues pointing to that crime are a bit too meagre and the actual execution of that scheme seems a bit risky (I know it's a rural village, but would<i> nobody</i> have seen X do that?). But on the whole, the story is both straightforward and rather limited in scope, and is perhaps best enjoyed as a "story set in Touma's past" than as an engaging mystery story. Reminds me though that the stories in <i>iff</i> feature <i>a lot</i> of characters with big dreams that either don't work out well. In this story, we have Takahiko who first failed his college entrance exams and then resorted to the weed cutting until he left the village on his bicycle, but then there's the three women in the first story who all had big goals in life which were taken away from them. There were those artists who wanted to go solo and a wannabe scientist <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/10/a-question-of-proof.html">in the first volume</a>, and the comedian who had to give up his dream in the industry in <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-perfect-plot.html">the second volume</a>... I mean, it's not strange for persons to <i>have</i> dreams and goals, but it's like each other story you'll find a character in this series who will have some monologue about their goals and dreams in life and it almost never works out 100% as planned.<br /><br />What was interesting about this volume though was that the characters were all based on... real people! Apparently, they had a campaign where you could apply to have your name featured as a character name in one of these stories: each of these stories is followed by a page with the characters who were based on one of the participants, and all with a one-line comment coming from the actual persons. <i> <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/11/overwrite.html">Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo</a></i> has a similar campaign going on by the way, tied to the limited edition releases, while the movies of <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Meitantei%20Conan%20%7C%20%E5%90%8D%E6%8E%A2%E5%81%B5%E3%82%B3%E3%83%8A%E3%83%B3"><i>Detective Conan</i></a> always feature two or three guest child voice actors (which I think are chosen through the magazine <i>Shonen Sunday</i>). These scenes always stand out <i>notoriously</i> by the way, as it's not difficult to recognize the amateur child guest actors among the professionals.<br /><br />Of the three volumes I've read of <i>Q.E.D. iff Shoumei Shuuryou</i>, this one was definitely the least interesting one. Both stories are not bad per se, but are nothing particularly clever or memorable either, and of course, there are only two stories per volume, so on the whole, it leaves next to no impression. This was the last volume of <i>iff</i> I got and as things stand now, I don't think I'll be making it a priority to follow this series. While never actually bad, I just miss something about this series that really makes me excited to read on. I think I would have enjoyed this series much better if I were actually following the serialization: I really wouldn't mind reading stories like these once a month as they come in as they are definitely entertaining enough, but I don't think they work as well read one after another in a volume.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Original Japanese title(s): 加藤元浩 『Q.E.D. iff -照明終了-』第3巻</span>Ho-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-3721892399130232642019-01-15T00:00:00.000+01:002019-01-15T00:00:00.593+01:00Stop the Clock<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">「時を戻すことができました」</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">『アリバイ崩し承ります』</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"I have succeeded in restoring the time."</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">" ("<i>Alibi Cracking, At Your Service</i>")</span></div><br />So in the time between me reading this book and the review getting published, this book won the <i>Honkaku Mystery Best 10</i> ranking of 2018!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4cY-8qkJa7g/XA5m2RsBFHI/AAAAAAAAD7o/_LiENbv6hCkOPD9rgHCBa0aqgkbL1oPmACLcBGAs/s1600/alibikuzushi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="289" data-original-width="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4cY-8qkJa7g/XA5m2RsBFHI/AAAAAAAAD7o/_LiENbv6hCkOPD9rgHCBa0aqgkbL1oPmACLcBGAs/s1600/alibikuzushi.jpg" /></a></div>In the Koikawa Shopping Arcade on the East exit of the Koikawa Station, there's a small watchmaker wedged between the butcher and the photo studio. Mitani Clockmakers is run by Mitani Tokino, a young woman in her twenties who learned the trade from her grandfather and has now inherited the shop from him. But Mitani Clockmakers isn't a normal clockmaker. Besides the normal services like selling and offering maintenance on clocks and other timepieces, Mitani Clockmakers also offers another, rather unique service. One day, a police detective walks into Mitani Clockmakers to have the battery in his watch replaced, but to his surprise, he spots a sign that says that the shop also offers an <i>alibi cracking</i> service. The detective inquires about the service, which according to Tokino was started by her grandfather, who was of the opinion that a clockmaker's work involved everything connected to a clock and time, and what is an alibi but a statement that someone was present or absent at a certain location at a certain time? As luck has it, the police detective is working on a case where the main suspect has a perfect alibi and intriqued by this unique service, he decides to consult Tokino on his case in <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Ooyama%20Seichirou%20%7C%20%E5%A4%A7%E5%B1%B1%E8%AA%A0%E4%B8%80%E9%83%8E">Ooyama Seiichirou</a>'s short story collection <i>Alibi Kuzushi Uketamawarimasu</i> ("<i>Alibi Cracking, At Your Service</i>", 2018).<br /><br />It was through the PSP game <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Trick%20X%20Logic"><i>Trick X Logic</i></a> that I first learned of the mystery writer <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Ooyama%20Seichirou%20%7C%20%E5%A4%A7%E5%B1%B1%E8%AA%A0%E4%B8%80%E9%83%8E">Ooyama Seiichirou</a>, as he was responsible for one of my favorite scenarios from the game. Some time later, I read <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2012/10/blog-post_29.html"><i>Misshitsu Shuushuuka</i></a>, an absolutely brilliant short story collection. What impressed me most about that collection was that Ooyama was a writer who was obviously writing in the Queen school, yet he was tackling the theme of <i>locked room murders</i>. These are two modes that you usually don't see together in mystery fiction, because it's prettty difficult coming up with locked room murders and other impossibilities, that are <i>also</i> solvable through the method of pure logical reasoning, which simply requires the reader to combine the known facts, make the logical conclusion from that combination, eliminate possibilities and identifying certain conditions which apply all to the murderer. Impossible crimes are usually focused on the <i>how</i> of an impossibility, while Ooyama focused much more on the <i>logical processes</i> required to solve the problems, resulting in one of my favorite reads of that year.<br /><br />In a way, <i>Alibi Kuzushi Uketamawarimasu</i> feels quite similar to <i>Misshitsu Shuushuuka</i> in concept, as this too is a short story collection that focuses completely on one single theme from mystery fiction: in this case, the perfect alibi. An alibi can be <i>a kind</i> of an impossible crime, if you assume that the suspect is indeed the murderer, despite having a perfect alibi, but your mileage may vary on how impossible you think the impossibility really is. Anyway, I'm actually quite the fan of the perfect alibi story, and combined with Ooyama's plotting, I knew this book would be a must-read. <br /><br />The opening story <i>Tokeiya Tantei to Stalker no Alibi</i> ("<i>The Clockmaker Detective and the Alibi of the Stalker</i>") introduces the reader and the narrator and unnamed police detective to Mitani Clockmakers and their unique service. Curious to whether Tokino can really help out, the police detective confides in her about the case he's working on. Hamazawa Kyouko, a professor of the local university, was found murdered in her own apartment room by her sister. Her time of death is estimated based on the pictures of her lunch/snack/dinner she posted on Twitter during the day, and also medically confirmed, and suspicion soon falls on her ex-husband, who had been stalking Kyouko for money. He however has an alibi for the time of death, as he had been drinking with friends. The detective has only just finished his story, when Tokino immediately solves the case and explains how this perfect alibi of the ex-husband was created. The solution is quite original, yet convincing and also somewhat "modern", as it's partly based on foodie photographs posted on Twitter, but while it can difficult to come up with the idea of how this alibi was created, I think Ooyama did a good job at clewing, as some of them really seem obvious in hindsight. <br /><br />In <i>Tokeiya Tantei to Kyouki no Alibi</i> ("<i>The Clockmaker Detective and the Alibi of the Murder Weapon</i>"), the police detective decides to visit Mitani Clockmakers again, as this time, he has a problem that involves the alibi of a gun. A gun was found inside a mail box when the mail was collected at 15:00. It's suspected the gun has to do with the gang war going on between two gangs who have their headquarters near that mail box, but later an employee of a pharmaceutical company is found dead in his apartment, and while it seems he has no ties with organized crime, the bullets found on the scene and in his body matched those of the gun found in the mail box. Eventually, suspicion falls on the victim's superior, who does seem to have a connection with the local gangs, but he has an alibi for the time: he was having a family gathering with his cousins at the time the victim was killed and the gun was thrown in the mail box. The solution Tokino explains is quite brilliant for creating this seemingly impossible situation. The actual clewing is a bit on the weak side, so it kinda expects the reader to just guess what happened, but the solution is quite complex, and one I could even see expanded into a full novel.<br /><br />In <i>Tokeiya Tantei to Shisha no Alibi</i> ("<i>The Clockmaker Detective and the Alibi of the Dead</i>"), the narrator has a rather nasty experience: one night, he was just out on a stroll, when he was almost hit by a drunken driver. Another man was less fortunate, and hit by the car. But in his dying breath, he confessed to the narrator that he had just committed a murder on a certain Nakajima Kasumi. Having been told the address of the victim, the narrator quickly notified his collegues, who indeed discovered a body inside the appartment of the victim. With a confession of the murderer himself, the case seems all wrapped up, until the police realizes that the man, who was a mystery writer specializing in alibi tricks, <i>couldn't</i> be the murderer, as it was impossible for him to commit the murder, <i>and then made it back in time near his own home get hit by the car and die</i>. The concept of a deceased person who himself confessed to the murder still having a perfect alibi is fun on its own, but it's the decisive hint to the solution that impresses the most, as it is absolutely brilliant and incredibly cleverly hidden: it's this kind of hint I love being fooled by!&nbsp; In hindsight, there's not just a "decisive" hint, but <i>a lot</i> of hints that point to the major realization you should make, but Ooyama's done an ace job at hiding the clews in plain sight, and this is definitely one of the hightlights of the collection. <br /><br />Tokino is asked to <i>find</i> an alibi in <i>Tokeiya Tantei to Ushinawareta Alibi </i>("<i>The Clockmaker Detective and the Lost Alibi</i>") rather than breaking one. Kawaya Toshiko was a private piano teacher, who was found beaten and strangled to death in her own apartment room. The main suspect is her younger sister, with whom she was having an argument about selling the parental home they had inherited together (where the younger sister is still living). She however reluctantly confesses to the police she has no alibi for the murder, saying she was probably not only asleep, but even sleepwalking during the time of the murder. The narrator does not believe the younger sister did it, so this time, Tokino has to come up with an alibi. While this is still about alibis, the <i>search for</i> an alibi, and in extension, the identity of the real murderer, is a welcome shift in style. This solution is <i>a bit</i> hard to swallow, though admittedly more than adequately hinted at (the question lies more in whether that really could've been pulled off). Once you make a guess who the murderer is based on the very limited cast though, it becomes very easy to guess what they did to create their alibi.<br /><br /><i>Tokeiya Tantei to Ojiisan no Alibi</i> ("<i>The Clockmaker Detective and the Alibi of Grandfather</i>") is a cute story in which Tokino tells about her grandfather and how he trained her in alibi cracking when she was young. One day, he had a challenge for her. The shop's closed on Tuesday, so he would go out that day, but he would come and stop a certain clock in the shop at a certain time (while Tokino was upstairs doing her homework). However, he would also submit evidence he was elsewhere. And that Tuesday, the clock was indeed stopped, yet Tokino's grandfather also had some photographs developed that proved he was at the clock wall in the neighboring town around the same time. Tokino's guesses are quickly elimated one by one, as the roll of film was proven to be definitely of that day (because they celebrated her grandfather's birthday the day before and photographs had been taken on the same roll, and on the clock photograph, he was wearing the handkerchief he was given as a present by Tokino herself). The solution is <i>very</i> different from the kind of solutions in the earlier stories, which is pretty smart: usually it might be easy to think of this particular solution, but this one is almost so simply you're likely to overlook this one due to the complexity of earlier stories!<br /><br /><i>Tokeiya Tantei to Sansou no Alibi </i>("<i>The Clockmaker Detective and the Alibi in the Mountain Lodge</i>") has the narrator hurrying back from a holiday to Mitani Clockmakers, as he wants Tokino to save a boy. The police detective was forced to use up his free days, so he had gone to a ski hostel in the mountains. There he became friends with a fellow guest, a boy in junior high who wanted to become a police detective himself. On the first night, another guest was murdered in the annex clock tower of the hostel, with footprints left in the snow proving that the victim had first gone to the clock tower, later followed by the murderer who returned to the hostel. The police detective himself had been a witness, together with the boy who was visiting him in his room, of how the victim had gone out to the clock tower late at night, but subsequent police investigation show that nobody could've followed the victim at the estimate time of the murder, save for the boy after he had left the room of the detective. What follows is a story is that is the most like the Queen-like stories of Ooyama, as the solution is based on the interpreation of the physical clues (the footprints). There's a nice reversal at play too, where after a certain realization is made, the matter of the alibis is turned completely around.<br /><br /><i>Tokeiya Tantei to Download no Alibi</i> ("<i>The Clockmaker Detective and the Alibi of the Download</i>") is perhaps the most "modern" of stories I've read in a long time. The narrator is working on the murder of Tomioka Shinji, a wealthy man, who himself turns out to be a murderer, as a few months after his murder, a skeleton was found buried in his garden. The skeleton is identified as the body of Wada Yuuichirou, an employee of Tomioka who disappeared some years ago. He was suspected to have fled because of embezzlement, but the discovery of his body on Tomioka's premises means he was likely killed to take the blame for Tomioka's crimes. The suspicion of the murder of Tomioka therefore falls on the son of Wada. The murder happened a few months ago on the sixth of December, but Wada remembers he had a friend come over to his room that night to play videogames. The friend is not sure about the exact date, though he knows he was there early December. Eventually, Wada manages to present an alibi: he downloaded a new song by a famous artist, which <i>was only distributed on the sixth of December</i>. It was a limited event and his friend saw both the download screen on Wada's smartphone, and even listened to the song, so that seems to prove Wada's alibi for the sixth of December, but of course, Tokino manages to poke a hole in his story. I think this is the first time I read a story where downloading something becomes an alibi, and I had a lot of fun with it! It's such a <i>normal</i> action in this time and age, and yet it's not something you often see in mystery fictoin, and the way it's used here is perfectly believable. The concept behind how this alibi was set-up is a bit tricky, as it depends heavily on a certain person not doing a certain thing, which is really something you can't control, but I do really like the way it was set-up.<br /><br /><i>Alibi Kuzushi Uketamawarimasu</i> therefore ends up as an excellent short story collection that really delves into the theme of cracking the perfect alibi. There's quite some variety to be found within these seven stories and while the standard is quite high overall, there are some stories that really stand out due to their unique clewing or concepts. <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2012/10/blog-post_29.html"><i>Misshitsu Shuushuuka</i></a> didn't get a sequel, but I hope at least we'll see more of Tokino and Mitani Clockmakers in the future!<br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Original Japanese title(s): 大山誠一郎 『アリバイ崩し承ります』:「時計屋探偵とストーカーのアリバイ」 / 「時計屋探偵と凶器のアリバイ」 / 「時計屋探偵と死者のアリバイ」 / 「時計屋探偵と失われたアリバイ」 / 「時計屋探偵とお祖父さんのアリバイ」 / 「時計屋探偵と山荘のアリバイ」 / 「時計屋探偵とダウンロードのアリバイ」</span>Ho-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-2002017010580213652019-01-12T00:00:00.000+01:002019-01-12T00:00:07.058+01:00Writ in Stone<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"Archaeology is the search for fact... not truth. If it's truth you're looking for, Dr. Tyree's philosophy class is right down the hall."</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"<i>Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade</i>" </span></div><br />I was always more a fan of the ancient or classic cultures in my History class, or at least the pre-modern periods.&nbsp; <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vkkZja2QdTg/XDj7XHYa7II/AAAAAAAAD-M/d16WsgSr4Bg7Gpfy_dMHnamP_0LRjNwKgCLcBGAs/s1600/munakata3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="297" data-original-width="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vkkZja2QdTg/XDj7XHYa7II/AAAAAAAAD-M/d16WsgSr4Bg7Gpfy_dMHnamP_0LRjNwKgCLcBGAs/s1600/munakata3.jpg" /></a></div>Three years ago, I reviewed the manga <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2015/12/now-museum-now-you-dont.html"><i>Professor Munakata's British Museum Adventure</i></a>, published by the British Museum. It was the first time <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukinobu_Hoshino">Hoshino Yukinobu</a>'s <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Professor%20Munakata%20%7C%20%E5%AE%97%E5%83%8F%E6%95%99%E6%8E%88"><i>Professor Munakata</i> series</a> was released in English. The titular character is a professor in Anthropology at Tokyo's Toa Bunka University, whose research interests lie the link between legends, myths and other folklore, and actual historical events. I absolutely loved the book: Hoshino is best known for his (hard) science fiction series, but in this volume, he really managed to beautifully mix real historical and anthropological research with his own original storyline, resulting in a suspenseful historical mystery tale about the British Museum and Stonehenge. At the end of my review, I concluded I wanted to read more of the series, as <i>Professor Munakata's British Museum Adventure</i> was actually one of the last stories published in Japan and part of the second <i>Professor Munakata</i> series: so there was still <i>a lot</i> to read. For some reason though, it took me until to actually get started on the series properly. And that of course means starting with the beginning, with the original series. Professor Munakata was first introduced to the world in 1990 in the two-part opening story<i> The White Wings - The Iron Star</i> in <i>Munakata Kyouju Denkikou</i> ("<i>Professor Munakata's Adventures</i>"). After a lecture at the university about the myth of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_maiden">the Swan Maiden</a> and how variants of this very myth exists in various ancient cultures, from the Ancient Greeks all the way to Japan, the professor is visited by Ikago Mana, one of his students. She has brought her parents along, who want to show the professor a ceremonial sword which was discovered in the little shrine in their home village near Izumo. Professor Munakata is incredibly surprised by the object, and especially by the engraving of a certain constellation in the blade. Realizing that this sword is also related to the myth of the Swan Maiden, he returns with Mana and her parents to the village for some fieldwork, and the discovery he makes there will change the professor's life forever.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9_KQYmcKlXE/XDj7XF_796I/AAAAAAAAD-I/P-VQDzSUylgedqaIfS9N1FdF4vLmxcICACLcBGAs/s1600/munakata1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="337" data-original-width="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9_KQYmcKlXE/XDj7XF_796I/AAAAAAAAD-I/P-VQDzSUylgedqaIfS9N1FdF4vLmxcICACLcBGAs/s1600/munakata1.jpg" /></a></div><br />To make one thing clear from the start, not all of the <i>Professor Munakata</i> series can be considered a mystery story within the context of the blog. All the stories in this series do pertain to folklore and other historical mysteries which Munakata uncovers or delves deeper into, but few of the stories are told in the manner of a true puzzle plot mystery (mystery -&gt; hints -&gt; solution based on hints) and some of the stories even feature almost supernatural conclusions that seem to come out of nowhere. That said though, the series is absolutely fantastic, as Hoshino's gripping storytelling is top-notch, and the way he intertwines real folklore research with his own original adventures is absolutely a delight. Some of the earlier stories for example involve the legends of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiyou">Chiyou</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daidarabotchi">Daidara</a> and the legendary spider Ryomen Sukuna, which Hoshino (Munakata) explores through both actual anthropological research that is both fascinating and educational, as well as his own original plots. For fans of actual historical mysteries, this series is definitely a must-read.<br /><br />Occasionally, though, the stories are told in a more traditional puzzle plot format. This is definitely the case with the series opening story. Even though it involves a topic you seldom see in "conventional" mystery fiction (the meaning behind <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_maiden">the Swan Maiden</a>) and there is no proper crime in this story either, I have to say that <i>The White Wings - The Iron Star</i> is truly a well-clewed historical mystery story that does a good job at allowing the reader to arrive at the hypothesis Professor Munakata himself arrives at at the end of the story. After the professor's arrival in the village, he is shown several sites that might have bearing to his research, like the shrine where the sword was found, as well as a dried-up lake of which the name also carries a reference to swans. After a fascinating explanation of how his research involves how this proto-myth is to be found across several cultures all across Eurasia, we are introduced to a rival TV anthropologist, who has drawn his own conclusions about the discoveries made in the village and is preparing for a new show. By this time, the mystery of "what needs to be solved" might still be somewhat vague to the reader, though they definitely have access to the clues and can even already connect some of them. It's only after a certain frightful event in the night that not only Munakata, but also the reader can suddenly see how everything that happened and was mentioned throughout the story is connected. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zJLrWldYYnQ/XDj7XD34loI/AAAAAAAAD-E/mmCxkZ7rt70DFfmyujlaVzksV0GKkLfyACLcBGAs/s1600/munakata2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="429" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zJLrWldYYnQ/XDj7XD34loI/AAAAAAAAD-E/mmCxkZ7rt70DFfmyujlaVzksV0GKkLfyACLcBGAs/s1600/munakata2.jpg" /></a></div><br />It is not difficult for a historical mystery to become too complex for a reader to solve themselves. Any mystery story needs to provide the proper context in order to be solvable, and in the case of a historical mystery, you need to balance providing enough of the necessary context without resorting to information overload, all without burdening, or underselling the core mystery story. Which is exactly why I thought <i>The White Wings - The Iron Star</i> was such an exceptional historical mystery story. While some readers might know <i>a</i> variant of the Swan Maiden myth, it's unlikely the reader is an expert on all the variants that exists in various cultures. That coupled with the (fictional) historical artifacts found in the village and even a rival "detective" who forms his own hypothesis, you'd think the reader is at a huge disadvantage, but they really aren't. In the end, professor Munakata proposes a daring hypothesis that ties all the discoveries made in the village to the lecture on the Swan Maiden he made earlier and not only is it a fair hypothesis (solely based on the clues proposed in the story), the reader has plenty of chance to arrive at this conclusion themselves, as everything shown and told in the story logically leads to this hypothesis. There's even proper visual clewing going around that helps professor Munakata and the reader in figuring out the function of some of the discoveries made in the village, and at the end, this story really makes the reader feel like they have solved a millenia-old mystery themselves.<br /><br />So while not all of <i>Professor Munakata</i>'s stories lend them well for discussion on this blog, I think the first story is definitely a fine example of how to do an excellent historical mystery story that not only attempts to reinterpret folklore, legends and myths from across the world as actual historical events, but also using a grammar that sets its firmly in the puzzle plot mystery genre, following a set-up of proper clewing that allows the reader to reach the intended conclusion themselves in a fair manner. As for now, I have <i>immense</i> fun with this series (still not finished), and if more stories follow that adher more closely to a traditional mystery story, I'll be sure to follow up with another story review.<br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Original Japanese title(s): 星野之宣『宗像教授伝奇考１ 白き翼 黒鉄の星』</span>Ho-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-16019755175486671672019-01-09T00:00:00.001+01:002019-01-09T00:00:01.292+01:00Springtime Crime<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">春には春の生き方があり</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">夏には夏の風が吹きます </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">「籟・来・也」（Garnet Crow）</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Spring has spring's way to live</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Summer has summer's wind blowing</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"<i>Rai Rai Ya</i>" (Garnet Crow) </span></div><br />Now I think about it, this is the first time I read a book in the long-running Hayakawa Pocket Mystery Book line of publisher Hayakawa. It's a line for translated (non-Japanese) novels, so in a way, it's no wonder it took a while for me to finally try one of these books (because for many of their books, I can read the original language), but these PokeMys books always caught my attention when I was Japan, as they utilize a very different size format from most other Japanese fiction publications. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5Walk7cqBP8/XCyMrEXBDAI/AAAAAAAAD9s/CjPKaM6tlIUFMfunATO3S-fzKRmEDzxUwCLcBGAs/s1600/harunomatsuri.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="347" data-original-width="200" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5Walk7cqBP8/XCyMrEXBDAI/AAAAAAAAD9s/CjPKaM6tlIUFMfunATO3S-fzKRmEDzxUwCLcBGAs/s320/harunomatsuri.jpg" width="184" /></a></div>'Tis the first of year of the Tianhan Era (100BC) of China's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_dynasty">Former Han Dynasty</a>. Yuling Ku, daughter of an aristocratic family in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang%27an">Chang'an</a>, is travelling across China for her studies in literature and religious rituals and finds herself becoming a house guest of the Guan clan, so she can witness their Rite of Spring which is to be held in a few days. The Guan clan used to be a prominent family with religious tasks in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_(state)">State of Chu</a> (of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_dynasty">the Zhou dynasty</a>, over 100 years earlier) and while even in this new age, they can still proudly boast about their distinguished lineage, the Guans now live a retreated life in the mountains. Ku becomes friends with Guan Loushen, youngest daughter of the Guans, even if Loushen can't always keep up with or forgive Ku's arrogant and mocking attitude, derived from all the knowledge Ku obtained through her studies. Ku learns about a family tragedy that happened exactly four years ago: Loushen's uncle was the head of the whole clan, but his whole family was killed by an unknown assailant, save for daughter Ruoying, who was at Loushen's place at the time. What made the incident so horrifying was that there were no footprints of the assailant found in the snow surrounding the house. Ku, who has a reputation for solving cases, promptly comes up with several theories to this mystery, which Loushen doesn't accept, but soon the two girls are forced to face not a case of the past, but one of the present too. One morning, after the two return from washing their hair in the river, the girls discover the dead body of Loushen's (other) aunt in a storage house. But it soon occurs to Ku that this murder has some similiarities to the family massacre four years ago, as here too it seems impossible for the murderer to have escaped, with people standing at all the possible escape routes leading away the storage. Ku is asked by Loushen's father to investigate the case, but time is not on Ku's side, as more and more people die one by one in the mountains in Lu Qiucha's <i>Yuan</i> <i>Nian Chun Zhi Ji</i> ("<i>Rite of Spring of the First Year</i>", 2016), which was released in Japan last year as <i>Gannen Haru no Matsuri</i>.<br /><br />Lu Qiucha is a Chinese mystery author who debuted with <i>Yuan</i> <i>Nian Chun Zhi Ji</i> in 2016. He is one of the generation that has been influenced by Japanese <i>shin honkaku</i> writers, naming writers like <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/search/label/Mitsuda%20Shinzou%20%7C%20%E4%B8%89%E6%B4%A5%E7%94%B0%E4%BF%A1%E4%B8%89">Mitsuda Shinzou</a> as large influences on his own work. When the novel was translated and released in Japan as <i>Gannen Haru no Matsuri</i> last year, the book garnered quite some critical praise, and even Mitsuda Shinzou himself wrote a comment especially for the book's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obi_(publishing)"><i>obi</i></a>, praising the work. The concept of an impossible mystery set in ancient China with two girl detectives sounded quite interesting to me and a copy was soon purchased.<br /><br />If I say "a mystery novel set in ancient China", you're likely to first think of <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Robert%20van%20Gulik">Robert van Gulik</a>'s <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Judge%20Dee"><i>Judge</i> <i>Dee</i></a> series. If you start with this book expecting something like the <i>Judge</i> <i>Dee</i> series however, you might be surprised in either a pleasant or unpleasant way, as <i>Yuan</i> <i>Nian Chun Zhi Ji</i> is quite, quite different. Of course, one major difference is the time period. The <i>Judge Dee</i> series takes place in the Tang Dynasty (with some Ming anachronisms), which is almost 800 years <i>after</i> the time period of <i>Yuan</i> <i>Nian Chun Zhi Ji</i>. In the same sense that a novel set in the 1200s is not likely to be very similar to a novel set in the 2000s, you shouldn't expect too many common points in the culture, even if it's the same geographic location. <br /><br />If you have read the <i>Judge Dee </i>series, you might know that series is very readable, despite the setting of ancient China, which to most people will be quite foreign. There are of course historical references and the cultural differences might feel large at times, but Van Gulik wrote these novels in an accessible manner. <i>Yuan</i> <i>Nian Chun Zhi Ji</i> is both a novel of contemporary times, as one that really feels like a story of ancient China. To start with the modern: <i>Yuan</i> <i>Nian Chun Zhi Ji</i><i> </i>is easily interpreted as a YA coming-of-age and budding-friendship story starring the two girls Ku and Loushen. Sure, the banter and fights they have might be about topics somewhat foreign to most readers, like about abusing personal servants or about the tasks and duties expected from devoted girls as daughters of families of certain social standing, but the <i>way</i> they banter feels like a modern YA novel. Heck, I'd say this novel is also the most <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_(genre)">yuri</a> mystery novel I've read, with both Ku and Loushen being bad at approaching the other in a normal manner and then growing very close. At the same time however <i>Yuan</i> <i>Nian Chun Zhi Ji </i>also reads as a classic Chinese novel. Half of the dialogues are about classic Chinese texts on religion and philosophy, and I'm talking here about texts that were considered classics <i>in 100 BC</i>! As an educated girl, Ku discusses several important philosophical texts from the Chu era with other characters, which is also the moment you realize what author Lu Qiucha's major was in college (yes, classic literature). Here you're reminded of second wavers like <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Mori%20Hiroshi%20%7C%20%E6%A3%AE%E5%8D%9A%E5%97%A3">Mori Hiroshi</a> and <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Kyougoku%20Natsuhiko%20%7C%20%E4%BA%AC%E6%A5%B5%E5%A4%8F%E5%BD%A6">Kyougoku Natsuhiko</a>, who in their mystery novels also like to <i>dive deep</i> into long, very, very long discussions about very specific topics in fields like philosophy and religion. In <i>Yuan</i> <i>Nian Chun Zhi Ji</i>, you'll be going through countless of pages where they talk indepth about classic texts and where people quote-unquote other texts as they counter each other's arguments. It's very much like a classic Chinese story where like every other sentence is a reference or quote to someone in the past, but it's certainly not for everyone.<br /><br />And yet you can't skip those segments, because they are of vital importance to the core mystery plot. Lu Qiucha was pretty ambitious in his debut novel: besides the impossible situation four years ago, he has more murders in the present, one of which also a semi-impossible situation where it doesn't seem possible for the murderer to have left the crime scene unseen, and we also have a dying message in another murder (and there's plenty of other deaths too...). Lu even has <i>two</i> Challenges to the Reader in this novel. Some of the individual parts are somewhat easy to guess: the family massacre four years ago for example is rather obvious, and the other impossible situation too is also rather limited in scope. The dying message on the other hand is really brilliantly done, and one of the false solutions proposed half-way through is also deviously complex and could've easily served as the true solution. However: these best parts of the book all <i>require you to really comprehend all those literary and philosophical discussions about classic texts</i>. I will first say that Lu is absolutely right in his Challenges to the Reader when he says no specialistic, prior knowledge is needed to solve the mystery, because he made sure that everything needed to connect the dots is mentioned within the story, but yeah, you do really go through those lengthy literary and philosophic discussions in detail and comprehend them well enough to infer their logical conclusion in order to make sense out of the dying message, or come up with that one interpretation needed for the false solution.<br /><br />What makes <i>Yuan</i> <i>Nian Chun Zhi Ji </i>a very memorable novel however, is the insanely unique motive. I can't write too much about it, but it is a motive that <i>only</i> could've worked in this culture, in this time. It would have been hard for any random reader to just think of this motive, but again, I had to say that Lu makes tremendous efforts at properly hinting at this motive through his textual references and discussions, and while it's a concept that seems so foreign at one hand, the whole story of <i>Yuan</i> <i>Nian Chun Zhi Ji</i> works to properly set-up this reveal. It's a completely unthinkable motive in this age, in most cultures, I'd suspect, but Lu provides the necessary context to make it work, and it definitely works like a charm, shocking as it may be, in <i>Yuan</i> <i>Nian Chun Zhi Ji</i>. The motive is definitely the highlight of the novel and one of the most unique ones in the genre, anywhere on the world.<br /><br />And in a small note, I would've liked a map! It's not necessary for the story, I admit, but some parts would've come out better I think, especially regarding the testimony of a certain witness. As the story is set around the Guan property, which consists only of several living quarters in a valley between some mountains, it would not only have made for a cool diagram, it would've helped with visualizing some of the movements of characters (as some grasp on where everybody was when exactly does help solve the mystery).<br /><br />I still find it hard to really summarize what I think of <i>Yuan</i> <i>Nian Chun Zhi Ji</i>. While you can read large parts of this novel as a YA novel about a troubled friendship between two teenage girls, on te whole, it's not a very accessible mystery novel with all its indepth discussions about topics that are likely not familiar to most readers. The cultural gap is quite large, especially in the first half of the story when things move rather slowly. But what makes <i>Yuan</i> <i>Nian Chun Zhi Ji</i> an interesting read are exactly the ideas that originate from that cultural gap. Lu has written a mystery novel that works <i>only</i> because it's set in the first year of the Tianhan Era, because it's set in that specific culture with these specific characters. The result is a mystery novel that is not only "dressed" as ancient China, but truly a puzzle plot mystery that is firmly set in ancient China. The motive in particular is a very memorable one, but it would only work in this setting. So I can definitely recommend <i>Yuan</i> <i>Nian Chun Zhi Ji</i> as a unique reading experience.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Original Chinese title(s): 陸秋槎 "元年春之祭"</span>Ho-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-44661807917802046402019-01-02T00:00:00.000+01:002019-01-02T00:00:00.245+01:00Running to Horizon<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">走る走る俺たち 流れる汗もそのままに </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">いつかたどり着いたら 君にうちあけられるだろ&nbsp;</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">「Runner」 （爆風スランプ）</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We run, we run, with sweat pouring down </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">But when I finally make it there, I will be able to confess to you</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"Runner" (Bakufu Slump)</span></div><br />Every year, I try to read at least one mystery set in <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2017/05/a-fine-and-private-place.html">the city of Fukuoka</a>, so why not start this new year with one?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Bw1dme8X9d0/W0iCwy79DfI/AAAAAAAADtk/BIzqMs21RGwO_Lgu7LrtvU-UIISuC5SqgCLcBGAs/s1600/fukuokamarathon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="286" data-original-width="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Bw1dme8X9d0/W0iCwy79DfI/AAAAAAAADtk/BIzqMs21RGwO_Lgu7LrtvU-UIISuC5SqgCLcBGAs/s1600/fukuokamarathon.jpg" /></a></div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukuoka_Marathon">The Fukuoka International Open Marathon</a> is one of the oldest annual marathons held in Japan and its position in the world of athletics is therefore quite important. The sixty-first edition of this race however has an extra bit of glamour to it: the Fukuoka Marathon is the first of three marathons held in 2007 in Japan which will determine which athletes will be sent as the national representatives in the Beijing Olympics the following year. Victory at one of these marathons, or at least the best result among the Japanese participants, more or less guarantees you'll be picked as a member of the Olympic team. But while there are certainly participants who are competing for that ticket, it's also true that every single partipant in this race has their own goals. Some of the professionals are not only aiming for a ticket, but perhaps for a personal or even a national record time. The foreign guest runners too are eager to finish in first place in this prestigious race. But there are also amateur runners who simply want to experience what it is run a full marathon, while others participate to prove a point to someone. Everyone has their own goals and designs as they make their way to the goal, but some runners have far more complex and sinister plans in mind as they speed through the streets of Fukuoka and with all these dreams and schemes bunched together, it was only a matter of time before one star runner would become the victim of a sinister plot and die. The questions of what the truth behind this runner's death is and what is everything hoping to accomplish is what drives Torikai Hiu's <i>Gekisou Fukuoka Kokusai Marathon - 42.195 Kilo no Nazo</i> ("<i>The Fierce Race - The Fukuoka International Marathon: The 42.195 km-long Mystery</i>", 2005). The book was later retitled to the shorter <i>Gekisou</i> when it was released in pocket format.<br /><br />I'm the first to admit I'm not a sports viewer at all in real life, but the Fukuoka International Open Marathon is one of the few big sports events I saw with my own eyes: I was living in the neighborhood Kashii in Fukuoka at the time, and the Miyuki Bus Stop <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2012/01/two-stations-in-kashii.html">near the two Kashii stations</a> is the turning point of the marathon somewhere beyond the 30 kilometer point, after which the runners run back to the Heiwadai Stadium near Ohori Park. My dorm was only a 5-10 minute walk away from the Miyuki Bus Stop, so I caught a bit of the race back then. My knowledge that this book would likely refer (even if very short) to the neighborhood I knew was a reason I really wanted to read this novel. Of course, as the marathon route goes through the whole of Fukuoka, most of the locations mentioned were somewhat familiar to me.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8WGJKNjL1J0/W0iC4u9QmEI/AAAAAAAADto/h5oUAT47oFkJpxY0hejoJB_K62RQt4B1wCLcBGAs/s1600/fukuokamarathon2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="505" data-original-width="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8WGJKNjL1J0/W0iC4u9QmEI/AAAAAAAADto/h5oUAT47oFkJpxY0hejoJB_K62RQt4B1wCLcBGAs/s1600/fukuokamarathon2.jpg" /></a></div><br />I've seen <i>Gekisou Fukuoka Kokusai Marathon</i> referred to as both a sports novel with a mystery element, and a mystery novel with a sports element, and both descriptions could work, depending on where the reader puts emphasis on. There is a properly clewed mystery plot here, but one has to admit that if you didn't know this was a mystery novel, you probably wouldn't notice it until <i>extremely</i> late in the novel and the novel's first impression is certainly that of a sports novel. The whole story is set during the Fukuoka Marathon, from the start until the finish, with each section counting off the number of kilometers left until the goal. The plot follows an ensemble cast of people partipicating in the race, but also a few outside the race. We get a glimpse in the minds of the three star runners Ogasawara, Nikaidou and Taniguchi for example, who all compete for a ticket to the Olympics, but also other runners in the race like one of three pacemakers in the race, as well as a runner who is competing for a ticket to the Beijing Paralympics. Outside the runners we also follow people like the police officer on the motorcycle leading the pack. All of these people have different things on their mind as the race continues, and the further we get, the more we learn about their pasts, their dreams and what they hope to accomplish in this race. It's also here where you slowly realize that some of these people are trying more than just win the race. Overall though, I'd say this novel is an entertaining read as a sports novel, diving into the heads of the diverse lot as they make their way through Fukuoka.<br /><br />It takes a long time before something happens that one would associate with the mystery genre. It's only around the halfway point when one of the runners suddenly keels over while getting his drink and dies in the ambulance. Death during a marathon isn't unheard of, of course, considering the physical strain it places on the body of the participants, but the motorcycle police officer leading the pack still thinks something fishy is going on. The truth behind this part of the mystery isn't super original and this part is a bit short (as the sections with the officer's thoughts are constantly cut off by the narratives of the other cast members), but it is definitely cleverly clewed, with the hints nicely hidden within the various narratives. Had this been the only mystery element, <i>Gekisou Fukuoka Kokusai Marathon</i> would have been a somewhat weak novel, but Torikai manages to much more with this novel. The problem: I can't write about it, as that would really give the game away. Let's say that once you reach the finish, some events and narratives that occured during the last two hours of the race take on a completely different meaning. <i>Something</i> big is going on and it happens under the nose of the reader. In hindsight, this is also properly hinted at and realizing how much of the various events that occured over the last 42 kilometres were in fact clues and foreshadowing is quite satisfying. So as a mystery novel, the set-up takes a long time, but I am quite pleased with the pay-off, even if you won't even realize that something <i>is</i> going on.<br /><br />I have to admit I haven't read many sports mystery titles, but I do think this one stands out. <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Meitantei%20Conan%20%7C%20%E5%90%8D%E6%8E%A2%E5%81%B5%E3%82%B3%E3%83%8A%E3%83%B3"><i>Detective Conan</i></a> has several sports-themed stories, but most of them are about bombs for some reason, and they happen outside the match themselves, with Conan having to trace bombs placed around a stadium or something like that, with the actual athletes having little direct connection to that (they usually have to do *something* to help Conan, but even then the focus doesn't lie on them). Examples would be <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2015/09/blog-post.html">the London story in volumes 71-72</a> for example, or the film <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.jp/2012/04/blog-post_26.html"><i>The Eleventh Striker</i></a>. <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2017/10/the-scarlet-thread-of-murder.html"><i>Detective Conan: The Crimson Love Letter</i></a> takes the form of a traditional sports film too, complete with training scenes, and is perhaps one of the best sports stories in Conan, even if it features a minor sport like competitive karuta. <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Ellery%20Queen">Queen</a> has a few short stories too in <i>The New Adventures</i> <i>of Ellery Queen</i> I remember. What makes <i>Gekisou</i> <i>Fukuoka Kokusai Marathon</i> so remarkable however is the plot truly revolves around the marathon and the various interested parties, and that the whole plot takes place over the course of the race itself, and we don't see anything before or after the race itself.<br /><br />So <i>Gekisou Fukuoka Kokusai Marathon - 42.195 Kilo no Nazo</i> was an entertaining novel that does a good job at bringing both a sports and mystery story. If you're looking for a mystery plot however, you do need to have patience, as it takes a while to get there and it's more one of those mystery novels that you only realize is actually a properly clewed mystery novel in hindsight. If you do manage to keep up with the pace however, you're in for a short, but engaging read.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Original Japanese title(s): 鳥飼否宇『激走 福岡国際マラソン 42.195キロの謎』</span>Ho-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-54403617425244191712018-12-26T00:00:00.000+01:002018-12-26T00:00:58.708+01:00Turnabout Memories - Part 8<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"I have to go over everything that's happened. I have to remember"</span></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Another Code R: Journey into Lost Memories </i></span></div><br />Like always, I am wrapping up this year with a short overview of the posts of 2018 that stood out most in my mind. At least, as far as I can still remember them. And yeah, because of the way I schedule my posts <i>way</i> ahead in time, that means some of these titles mentioned I already read in 2017, and that the reviews of some of the better reads I have read in 2018, won't be posted here until in 2019. Timey-wimey stuff. And as I don't really like to make lists, there's actually not that much thought going into this post, as I just make up categories as I go along and write down the titles that sorta stuck in my head. Unlike previous years, there's no new <i>Detective Conan</i> volume released at the end of the year, so this will really be the last of the year! That said, I already have my reviews for the coming months all lined up, so next week, same Bat-Day-of-the-week, same Bat-Channel, there'll be the usual review. Hope to see you too in the new year!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1WHPSWKyeT8/Ur1WHnKhJLI/AAAAAAAAAW8/XznpWpjL6usmJxR-4Hm7OwDURNTTtkNOQCPcB/s1600/tiseenboekdajare.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="311" data-original-width="397" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1WHPSWKyeT8/Ur1WHnKhJLI/AAAAAAAAAW8/XznpWpjL6usmJxR-4Hm7OwDURNTTtkNOQCPcB/s1600/tiseenboekdajare.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><b>Most Impressive Cover! Seen in 2018!</b><br /><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/01/burn-card.html"><i>Detective Conan: The Crimson Love Letter</i></a> <br /><br /><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ctD7AAAJjr0/WjqMukHkKWI/AAAAAAAADY8/iQMFjROnRRsSarwiCyoi8-tr4HE88GGhwCLcBGAs/s1600/karakurenai.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="285" data-original-width="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ctD7AAAJjr0/WjqMukHkKWI/AAAAAAAADY8/iQMFjROnRRsSarwiCyoi8-tr4HE88GGhwCLcBGAs/s1600/karakurenai.jpg" /></a>Wasn't a big fan of Unno Juuza's <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/02/fly-by-night.html"><i>Hae Otoko</i></a> ("<i>The Human Fly</i>"), but man, that cover was awesome!&nbsp; I also have a weakness for the cover of <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/01/attack-of-headless-horror.html"><i>Kubinashi no Gotoki Tataru Mono</i></a> ("<i>Those Who Cast A Curse Like The Headless</i>") (there's something uncanny about the art) and I absolutely adore the vivid use of colors of the covers of <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-burglar-in-library.html"><i>Toshokan no Satsujin</i></a> ("<i>The Library Murder</i>") and the two <i><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-case-of-distressed-lady.html">Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de</a> </i>("<i>Mystery Solving Is After Dinner</i>") volumes I reviewed this year. But I think the cover of <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/01/burn-card.html"><i>Detective Conan: The Crimson Love Letter</i></a>, the novel version of the 2017 <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Meitantei%20Conan%20%7C%20%E5%90%8D%E6%8E%A2%E5%81%B5%E3%82%B3%E3%83%8A%E3%83%B3"><i>Detective Conan</i></a> film based on Ookura's original version of the screenplay, stuck with me the most. What I like about this cover is that it's of course <i>super adorable</i>, but also because it features art that's <i>not </i>like the usual <i>Detective Conan</i> art. Everyone <i>knows</i> how <i>Detective Conan</i> looks like in terms of artstyle, so it's cool to see a completely different take on the characters, in a style you seldom see on covers of mystery novels anyway.<br /><br /><b>Best Project Outside The Blog!</b><br /><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-8-mansion-murders-released.html"><i>The 8 Mansion Murders</i></a><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zx9jiWq_l1A/WvU9BPSMLpI/AAAAAAAADkE/iQka_3qjUdQaiJ0Rqlozl2L8FWk3tmxlgCLcBGAs/s1600/8mansion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zx9jiWq_l1A/WvU9BPSMLpI/AAAAAAAADkE/iQka_3qjUdQaiJ0Rqlozl2L8FWk3tmxlgCLcBGAs/s1600/8mansion.jpg" /></a></div>Okay, like last year, it's not like there's much competition here, but I'm personally also quite pleased that I was able to translate Abiko's debut novel for Locked Room International. In 2015, I was able to work on <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/search/label/Ayatsuji%20Yukito%20%7C%20%E7%B6%BE%E8%BE%BB%E8%A1%8C%E4%BA%BA">Ayatsuji Yukito</a>'s <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2015/06/decagon-house-murders-released.html"><i>The Decagon House Murders</i></a>, followed in 2016 LRI's release of <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/search/label/Arisugawa%20Alice%20%7C%20%E6%9C%89%E6%A0%96%E5%B7%9D%E6%9C%89%E6%A0%96">Arisugawa Alice</a>'s <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2016/05/moai-island-puzzle-released.html"><i>The Moai Island Puzzle</i></a>. 2017 was a step back in time with Osaka's short story collection <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2017/05/ginza-ghost.html"><i>The Ginza Ghost</i></a>, but 2018 was another example of early <i>shin honkaku</i> mystery. What I especially like about this novel that it's <i>easily</i> the funniest novel I've worked on until now, and it's also a work that is so clearly a work by Abiko: if you've read other works by him, you'll immediately recognize his style of comedy. Publishers Weekly not only deemed it "<i>one of the funniest and cleverest novels of its type to hit the English-language market in years</i>," but even elected it as one of the best mysteries released in 2018 in their Best Books 2018, which is of course something I hadn't expected at all.<br /><br /><b>Best Mystery Movie/TV series/other linear audiovisual media! Of 2018!</b><br /><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-house-of-nightmare-witch.html"><i>Koureikai W Misshitsu Jiken</i></a> ("<i>The Case of the </i><i>Séance's Double Locked Room</i>") (<a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/search/label/Meitantei%20Conan%20%7C%20%E5%90%8D%E6%8E%A2%E5%81%B5%E3%82%B3%E3%83%8A%E3%83%B3"><i>Detective Conan</i></a> episodes 603-605)<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CJu1Aj3xVr0/XA6uRFUJB4I/AAAAAAAAD70/OIV-7ogRJ0g9n584UMCE9VdMrc2ASBttgCLcBGAs/s1600/koureikai.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CJu1Aj3xVr0/XA6uRFUJB4I/AAAAAAAAD70/OIV-7ogRJ0g9n584UMCE9VdMrc2ASBttgCLcBGAs/s1600/koureikai.jpg" /></a></div>Some heavy competition here.&nbsp; I also saw <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/04/turnabout-storyteller.html">some minor Agatha Christie</a> adaptations which were not that special, but also an <i>insanely</i> fun adaptation of <i>The Murder of Roger Ackroyd</i>, as Mitani Kouki's TV special <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/04/turnabout-storyteller.html"><i>Kuroido Goroshi</i></a> ("<i>The Murder of Kuroido</i>")<i> </i>went far beyond my expectations as an adaptation of a notoriously difficult-to-adapt novel. The annual <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/search/label/Meitantei%20Conan%20%7C%20%E5%90%8D%E6%8E%A2%E5%81%B5%E3%82%B3%E3%83%8A%E3%83%B3"><i>Detective Conan</i></a> movie, <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/10/justice-for-all.html"><i>Zero the Enforcer</i></a>, is not really a contender as its rather light on the mystery element, but I have reviewed several episodes of the animated TV series written by screenplay writer/storyboarder/director <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Ochi%20Hirohito%20%7C%20%E8%B6%8A%E6%99%BA%E6%B5%A9%E4%BB%81">Ochi Hirohito</a> which were excellent. Both <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/04/mask-of-phantasm.html"><i>Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau</i></a> ("<i>The Cursed Masks Laugh Coldly</i>") and <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-house-of-nightmare-witch.html"><i>Koureikai W Misshitsu Jiken</i></a> ("<i>The Case of the </i><i>Séance's Double Locked Room</i>") were both absolutely stunning as locked room mysteries, with the former was better suited for the visual format, I think. In the end, I have to say the latter was the best however, as it made use of its longer runtime to present a larger story, that not only built on the themes explored in<i> Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau</i>, but went even further.<br /><br /><b>Best Premise! Of 2018!</b><br /><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/11/crawling-with-zombies.html"><i>Shijinsou no Satsujin</i></a> ("<i>The Murders in the Villa of the Dead</i>")<br /><br /><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d2ci0E85MAw/W_qIu5UT75I/AAAAAAAAD5c/TVV01oYpEw86sjpNnMlfSFW95cXVnTkAwCLcBGAs/s1600/shijin1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="295" data-original-width="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d2ci0E85MAw/W_qIu5UT75I/AAAAAAAAD5c/TVV01oYpEw86sjpNnMlfSFW95cXVnTkAwCLcBGAs/s1600/shijin1.jpg" /></a>With premise, I mean the basic setting/idea on which the whole plot is built. And I came across a few interesting concepts this year. I really liked <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Yonezawa%20Honobu%20%7C%20%E7%B1%B3%E6%BE%A4%E7%A9%82%E4%BF%A1">Yonezawa Honobu</a>'s <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/02/captured-in-her-eyes.html"><i>Gusha no End Roll</i></a> ("<i>End Credits of Fools</i>") for example, which came up with a good idea that allowed normal school students to work on a locked room murder (they had to come up with the solution for an unfinished mystery movie). <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Ashibe%20Taku%20%7C%20%E8%8A%A6%E8%BE%BA%E6%8B%93">Ashibe Taku</a>'s novel <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/05/double-double.html"><i>Double Mystery</i></a> made brilliant use of the <i>format</i> of the novel, with a book that you could start reading at either end, and with a set of sealed pages in the middle. <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Chan%20Ho-Kei%20%7C%20%E9%99%B3%E6%B5%A9%E5%9F%BA">Chan Ho-Kei</a>'s <i><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/05/designs-in-crime.html">The Borrowed</a></i> (org. title: <i>13.67</i>) was an interesting trip back in time, as you went back in time in Hong Kong's history with each following story, and the temporal changes were always clearly present in the story. But in the end, I have to go with <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/11/crawling-with-zombies.html"><i>Shijinsou no Satsujin</i></a>, because it's a premise that is simple, but also so alluring and you immediately start wondering about all that could be possible the moment the idea is mentioned. Because who wouldn't like a fair play puzzle plot locked room mystery that is set <i>during a zombie outbreak</i>?<br /><br /><b>Best Non-Mystery! Of 2018!</b><br /><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-comic-book-mystery.html"><i>Honkaku Mystery Manga Zemi</i></a> ("<i>Honkaku Mystery Comics Seminar</i>") <br /><br /><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AZP0bIbFQBI/Wvllc8tHOhI/AAAAAAAADk0/Tz3IwqP9s7osnhc1RuqB1NTGsXZNE__ZgCLcBGAs/s1600/seminar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="292" data-original-width="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AZP0bIbFQBI/Wvllc8tHOhI/AAAAAAAADk0/Tz3IwqP9s7osnhc1RuqB1NTGsXZNE__ZgCLcBGAs/s1600/seminar.jpg" /></a>Not a really fair one perhaps, as I only reviewed two non-primary sources on mystery this year. <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/04/murder-at-television-studio.html"><i>21 Seiki Honkaku Mystery Eizou Taizen</i></a> ("<i>The Encyclopedia of 21st Century Honkaku Mystery Video</i>") was an informative guide on (mostly) Japanese mystery productions for TV<b> </b>and film (both live-action and anmated). It was a comprehensive guide, but the quality of the seperate entries could differ widely. Fukui's <i>Honkaku Mystery Manga Zemi</i> however is <i>the</i> seminal work on the topic of mystery manga, offering a staggering overview of the many, many, <i>many</i> mystery manga that have been published since World War II in Japan, all placed within the proper historical and publication context. Anyone interested in mystery manga as a genre <i>must </i>read this<i>.</i><br /><br /><b>Best Non-Review Post! Of 2018!</b><br /><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/06/eye-on-crime.html">Glasses in mystery fiction</a><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rpHDqZqRK9s/WzZ73dVnIII/AAAAAAAADqQ/txBjGj1EvcsEYiW9QFczleItSCvB3CukQCEwYBhgL/s1600/glasses2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="265" data-original-width="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rpHDqZqRK9s/WzZ73dVnIII/AAAAAAAADqQ/txBjGj1EvcsEYiW9QFczleItSCvB3CukQCEwYBhgL/s1600/glasses2.jpg" /></a></div>Did anyone notice I wrote a lot more editorials this year? Of course, usually I only write like one or two of them a year, so it's not <i>that</i> difficult to write a lot more than usual, but still... Most of them were about minor topics of course, like <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/06/prism-of-eyes.html">physical books versus e-books</a>, or <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-wrong-shape.html">novels versus short stories</a> (why am I only looking for confrontations?). I was also happy with <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-quest-of-missing-map.html">the one about floorplans/diagrams</a>, as usually I don't really have visual-oriented posts and I think <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-stolen-relic.html">the one about mystery-related merchandise</a> was fairly unique too. But the one I actually <i>thought</i> about before writing, was <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/06/eye-on-crime.html">the one about the various ways in which a pair of glasses can feature in a mystery story</a>. Considering nobody commented on it, I assume it's also a very self-indulging topic, but still, as someone who loves his stories about physical clues, I really enjoyed looking at a specific item in mystery fiction that isn't even a murder weapon!<br /><br /><b>Best Plotted Mystery! in 2018!</b><br /><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/01/attack-of-headless-horror.html"><i>Kubinashi no Gotoki Tataru Mono</i></a> ("<i>Those Who Cast A Curse Like The Headless</i>")<b> </b><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4E8gfRTFlQI/Wlx8BFbfiDI/AAAAAAAADZs/a6FQInMldlA1xFcmfUo-OFXf47qWhw_3ACLcBGAs/s1600/kubinashi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4E8gfRTFlQI/Wlx8BFbfiDI/AAAAAAAADZs/a6FQInMldlA1xFcmfUo-OFXf47qWhw_3ACLcBGAs/s1600/kubinashi.jpg" /></a></div>The buzzword on this blog this year was <i>synergy</i>. I first used the word consciously in my review for Mitsuda Shinzou's <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/01/attack-of-headless-horror.html"><i>Kubinashi no Gotoki Tataru Mono</i></a> ("<i>Those Who Cast A Curse Like The Headless</i>") to describe the <i>incredible</i> feat Mitsuda had done in this novel: while <i>every problem </i>in the novel, from the mysterious decapitations to the impossible disappearance, could be related back to one single underlying theme that explained all, Mitsuda had not only created several diverse applications of that theme, he had also managed to make sure that each iteration and element in the book was there not just to make the story longer, but most importantly, they were there to help strengthen the other parts. Each element in the book had several reasons why it was included, and each of those reasons basically came down to <i>making this a better mystery novel</i> <i>by strengthening all the other elements</i>. Later in the year I also read Mitsuda's <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/06/night-on-haunted-mountain.html"><i>Yamanma no Gotoki Warau Mono</i></a> ("<i>Those Who Sneer Like The Mountain Fiend</i>")<i>, </i>which did a similar thing, and Ochi's screenplay for <i>Detective Conan</i> <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-house-of-nightmare-witch.html"><i>Koureikai W Misshitsu Jiken</i></a> ("<i>The Case of the </i><i>Séance's Double Locked Room</i>") is also an excellent example of having various elements that aren't just there to have a longer story, but there to help strengthen and improve the overall mystery plot. In the end, I still think that the first novel that got me thinking about synergy in mystery fiction, is still the best example of how to <i>really</i> plot an interconnected mystery plot where you really can understand why each element is there and how it relates to the rest of the story.<br /><br /><b>Most Interesting Mystery Game Played In 2018! But Probably Older!</b><br /><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/03/its-all-in-game.html"><i>Detective Pikachu</i></a><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-z_Qq4QLa6Zg/Wr3yRUfX4LI/AAAAAAAADd0/yTulBxuSN0kKUBunZu3C6fefu8GxUKCgwCLcBGAs/s1600/pika1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-z_Qq4QLa6Zg/Wr3yRUfX4LI/AAAAAAAADd0/yTulBxuSN0kKUBunZu3C6fefu8GxUKCgwCLcBGAs/s1600/pika1.jpg" /></a></div>Okay, to be honest, I didn't play that many outstanding mystery games this year. I played some minor releases, like <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/05/go-your-own-way.html"><i>Buddy Collection</i></a> and <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/05/she-died-lady.html">Kiss of Murder</a>, which were okay, but no more than that. Of the major releases, <i>Tantei Jinguuji Saburou - Prism of Eyes</i> ("<i>Detective Jinguuji Saburou - Prism of Eyes</i>") was overall disappointing as 75% of that game was just a rerelease of older material with a new coat of paint, while the prequel spin-off <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-raven-chaser.html"><i>Daedalus: The Awakening of Golden Jazz</i></a> could've used a bit more of brushing up in regards of storytelling. <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/09/this-love-is-thrill-shock-suspense.html"><i>WorldEnd Syndrome</i></a> was an interesting, and amusing mystery game, but it wasn't the type of story that really had you as the player actively investigating a case yourself. I didn't review <i>L.A. Noire </i>on the blog, which I did play this year, and while it has some interesting segments and ideas as a mystery game, it's also fault-ridden as it doesn't <i>really</i> knows what it wants to be in terms of both story and game. <i>Detective Pikachu </i>however was so much fun. Yes, it's a fairly simple adventure game, but the way it utilizes Pokémon and their unique abilities to create new types of mystery problems was both original and inspired and I had a blast start to finish. The new live-action film based on <i>Detective Pikachu</i> however.... that's going into Uncanny Valley material.<br /><br />To name a few other non-mystery games that were great this year: <i>Super Smash Bros. Ultimate</i> has to be named of course, and I also had fun with the miniature garden puzzler <i>Captain Toad</i>. I also enjoyed the sound novel <i>Okuri'inu</i>, which was created by the writer of one of the greatest horror novel games ever, <i>Gakkou de Atta Kowai Hanashi</i>. And <i>Ryuu ga Gotoku Kenzan!</i> was absolutely fun as a <i>Yakuza</i> game starring Musashi Miyamoto!<br /><br /><b><b>The Just-Ten-In-No-Particular-Order-No-Comments List</b>&nbsp;</b> <br />- <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/11/crawling-with-zombies.html"><i>Shijinsou no Satsujin</i></a> ("<i>The Murders in the Villa of the Dead</i>") (<a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Imamura%20Masahiro%20%7C%20%E4%BB%8A%E6%9D%91%E6%98%8C%E5%BC%98">Imamura Masahiro</a>)<br />- <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/01/attack-of-headless-horror.html"><i>Kubinashi no Gotoki Tataru Mono</i></a> ("<i>Those Who Cast A Curse Like The Headless</i>") (<a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/search/label/Mitsuda%20Shinzou%20%7C%20%E4%B8%89%E6%B4%A5%E7%94%B0%E4%BF%A1%E4%B8%89">Mitsuda Shinzou</a>)<br />- <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-old-cat-and-mouse-game.html"><i>13</i>-<i>Ninme no Tanteishi</i></a> ("<i>The 13th Detective</i>") (<a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/search/label/Yamaguchi%20Masaya%20%7C%20%E5%B1%B1%E5%8F%A3%E9%9B%85%E4%B9%9F">Yamaguchi Masaya</a>)<br />- <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/03/its-all-in-game.html"><i>Meitantei Pikachu</i></a> (<i>Detective Pikachu</i>)<br />- <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-burglar-in-library.html"><i>Toshokan no Satsujin</i></a> ("<i>The Library Murder</i>") (<a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Aosaki%20Yuugo%20%7C%20%E9%9D%92%E5%B4%8E%E6%9C%89%E5%90%BE">Aosaki Yuugo</a>) <br />- <i><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/05/designs-in-crime.html">The Borrowed</a></i> (org. title: <i>13.67</i>) (<a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Chan%20Ho-Kei%20%7C%20%E9%99%B3%E6%B5%A9%E5%9F%BA">Chan Ho-Kei</a>)<br />- <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/06/night-on-haunted-mountain.html"><i>Yamanma no Gotoki Warau Mono</i></a> ("<i>Those Who Sneer Like The Mountain Fiend</i>") (<a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/search/label/Mitsuda%20Shinzou%20%7C%20%E4%B8%89%E6%B4%A5%E7%94%B0%E4%BF%A1%E4%B8%89">Mitsuda Shinzou</a>)<br />- <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-house-of-wax.html"><i>Kaiki Tantei Sharaku Homura 3 - Routarou</i></a> ("<i>Sharaku Homura: Detective of the Uncanny - Mr. Wax</i>") (<a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Nemoto%20Shou%20%7C%20%E6%A0%B9%E6%9C%AC%E5%B0%9A">Nemoto Shou</a>)<br />-<i> <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-stolen-turnabout.html">Youtou S79-Gou</a></i> ("<i>Phantom Thief S79</i>") (<a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/search/label/Awasaka%20Tsumao%20%7C%20%E6%B3%A1%E5%9D%82%E5%A6%BB%E5%A4%AB">Awasaka Tsumao</a>)<br />- <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/04/mask-of-phantasm.html"><i>Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau</i></a> ("<i>The Cursed Masks Laugh Coldly</i>") (<a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Meitantei%20Conan%20%7C%20%E5%90%8D%E6%8E%A2%E5%81%B5%E3%82%B3%E3%83%8A%E3%83%B3"><i>Detective Conan</i></a> episode 187)Ho-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-43219851390564358002018-12-23T12:11:00.000+01:002018-12-23T15:59:08.772+01:00The Raven Chaser<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">「三郎、思考の樹を育てろ」</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">『ダイダロス：ジ・アウェイクニング・オブ・ゴールデンジャズ』&nbsp;</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"Saburou, nurture the Tree of Knowledge"</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"<i>Daedalus: The Awakening of Golden Jazz</i>"</span></div><br />Last review of the year (not the last post)!<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/search/label/Jinguuji%20Saburou%20%7C%20%E6%8E%A2%E5%81%B5%E7%A5%9E%E5%AE%AE%E5%AF%BA%E4%B8%89%E9%83%8E"><i>Tantei Jinguuji Saburou</i></a> series</u><i>&nbsp;</i></span><br />1: <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2010/10/blog-post.html"><i>The Shinjuku Central Park Murder Case</i></a> (1987) [Nintendo Famicom Disk System]<br />5: <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2014/01/turnabout-corner.html"><i>The Unfinished Reportage</i></a> (1996) [Sony PlayStation / SEGA Saturn]<i>&nbsp;</i><br />6: <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.jp/2013/01/blog-post.html"><i>At the End of the Dream</i></a> (1998) [Sony PlayStation / SEGA Saturn]<i>&nbsp;</i><br />7: <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2014/04/light-that-doesnt-shine.html"><i>Before the Light Fades</i></a> (1999) [Sony PlaySation]<i>&nbsp;</i><br />8: <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2015/05/black-coffee-rag.html"><i>Innocent Black</i></a> (2002) [Sony PlayStation 2] <i>&nbsp;</i><br />9: <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2015/06/deep-blue-bloom.html"><i>Kind of Blue</i></a> (2004) [Sony PlayStation 2] <i>&nbsp;</i><br />10: <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2009/09/player-on-other-side.html"><i>The White Phantom Girl</i></a> (2005) [Nintendo GameBoy Advance]<i>&nbsp;</i><br />14: <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2010/10/blog-post.html"><i>Ashes and Diamonds</i></a> (2009) [Sony PlayStation Portable]<i>&nbsp;</i><br />15: <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2011/08/see-you-in-next-trouble.html"><i>The Red Butterfly</i></a> (2010) [Nintendo DS]<i>&nbsp;</i><br />16: <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.jp/2013/01/blog-post.html"><i>Rondo of Revenge</i></a> (2012) [Nintendo 3DS]<br />17: <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2017/09/a-frightened-hound-meets-demons.html"><i>Ghost of the Dusk</i></a> (2017) [Nintendo 3DS]<br />18: <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/08/monochrome-motion.html"><i>Prism of Eyes</i></a> (2018) [Nintendo Switch/Sony PlayStation 4]<br /><br />00: <i>Daedalus: The Awakening of Golden Jazz</i> (2018) [Nintendo Switch/Sony PlayStation 4]<br /><br />Novels<br /><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2017/03/lost-shadow.html"><i>The Ghost of Shinjuku</i></a> (2006)<br /><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2015/08/lady-in-waiting.html"><i>A Bright Future</i></a> (2007) </span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SQkxqmgOqcI/XB9ihcxgNyI/AAAAAAAAD88/DEDBqJPPWfYDCQ4YrxLqf8TpZCnxdJKHwCLcBGAs/s1600/daedalus1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="325" data-original-width="200" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SQkxqmgOqcI/XB9ihcxgNyI/AAAAAAAAD88/DEDBqJPPWfYDCQ4YrxLqf8TpZCnxdJKHwCLcBGAs/s320/daedalus1.jpg" width="196" /></a></div>It was only a full month after the death of Jinguuji Kyousuke that his grandson Saburou learned of the death of his beloved grandfather, and to his utter shock, he also found out Kyousuke had been murdered. Kyousuke had been considered the black sheep of the Jinguuji clan, head of the Jinguuji Konzern, as he had moved away from Japan to New York in his younger days to escape the power struggles within his family. In New York, Kyousuke had become a well-respected and much loved private detective. Saburou suspects his grandfather's murder may have to do with his job, so he decides to fly off to New York to find out why his grandfather was killed. In New York, he is reunited with old friends he met at summer camp when he was a kid, but also with new allies, like Kyousuke's assistant Dan and police detectives Joshua and Hal. As Saburou learns more about the life his grandfather had in New York, he also stumbles upon the last case his grandfather was working on, which may have led to his death.&nbsp; With the words "Daedalus" and "The Cursed Town" as his only clues, Saburou sets out to find the murderer of his grandfather in the 2018 Switch/PS4 videogame <i>Daedalus: The Awakening of Golden Jazz</i>?<br /><br />The <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Jinguuji%20Saburou%20%7C%20%E6%8E%A2%E5%81%B5%E7%A5%9E%E5%AE%AE%E5%AF%BA%E4%B8%89%E9%83%8E"><i>Tantei Jinguuji Saburou</i></a> series (also known as the <i>Jake Hunter</i> series) is a long-running mystery adventure game series which started in 1987 with the Famicom Disk System videogame <i>S<a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2010/10/blog-post.html">hinjuku Chuuou Kouen Satsujin Jiken</a></i> ("<i>The Shinjuku Central Park Murder Case</i>"). The series revolves around the titular Jinguuji Saburou, a private detective who operates from Shinjuku, Tokyo. With the support of his assistant Youko, Inspector Kumano of the Yodobashi Police Station and other friends, Jinguuji has managed to solve many, <i>many</i> cases over the course of thirty years of game history. The hardboiled crime stories often have a focus on human drama and lean towards the social school of mystery, but will also occasionally feature puzzle plot mysteries and other classic tropes, resulting in a very eclectic form that at least greatly entertains me. The most recent game in this series is <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/08/monochrome-motion.html"><i>Prism of Eyes</i></a>, which I reviewed in August of this year.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-f_GUV9ZLNss/XB9ijS7of0I/AAAAAAAAD9I/OUfyFwV1VGcQUMNAxL9Z6nvaGw0bOce6wCEwYBhgL/s1600/daedalus5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="220" data-original-width="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-f_GUV9ZLNss/XB9ijS7of0I/AAAAAAAAD9I/OUfyFwV1VGcQUMNAxL9Z6nvaGw0bOce6wCEwYBhgL/s1600/daedalus5.jpg" /></a></div><br />But before the release of <i>Prism of Eyes</i>, it was already announced that we'd see <i>another</i> entry of this series soon, though in a completely different form. <i>Daedalus: The Awakening of Golden Jazz</i> is the first prequel/spin-off game the series has seen in its more than thirty years old history, and is set about 10 years before the main series, portraying a younger Jinguuji Saburou as a student, long before he became the ever-smoking private detective we know of the other games. From earlier games, we knew he had taken after his grandfather and that like his grandfather, he had also lived in the United States and that during his time in New York, he had first met his future assistant Misono Youko as both got involved in a certain case (as mentioned in the PSX entry <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2013/01/blog-post.html"><i>Yume no Owari ni</i></a>), but we never got any details about this past. <i>Daedalus: The Awakening of Golden Jazz</i>, which is written by the same scenario writer as of <i>Yume no Owari ni</i>, gives us the details of Saburou's time in New York.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bpNXBR9CqKc/XB9ihO4oJEI/AAAAAAAAD84/s4sHdpO5qBY1eV6nOcn-7MpB00p3Z00bACEwYBhgL/s1600/daedalus3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bpNXBR9CqKc/XB9ihO4oJEI/AAAAAAAAD84/s4sHdpO5qBY1eV6nOcn-7MpB00p3Z00bACEwYBhgL/s1600/daedalus3.jpg" /></a></div><br />Why <i>Daedalus: The Awakening of Golden Jazz</i><i> </i>is touted as a spin-off title rather than as the newest numbered entry in the main series, becomes obvious the moment you look at the game. It looks <i>nothing at all</i> like the previous games. Sure, the character designs are always different each game, and I <i>really </i>like the character designs this time. But gone are the old-fashioned commands like "Look" or "Talk" which you use to interact with static screens featuring static characters, as now each location is depicted as a 360 degrees panorama picture. It's pretty to nice to actually be able to move the camera now and look all around you. Instead of choosing the "Look" command, followed by "Telephone" like in all the previous games, you can now directly move the camera towards the telephone and select it to interact with it. Functionally, it works actually precisely the same as in the old games, but it certainly looks flashier. (If you're thinking of <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Sherlock"><i>Sherlock</i></a> because of the floating text: <i>Sherlock</i> takes <i>a lot </i>of cues from game grammar). I guess the idea is that these changes allow the player to really experience the world through Saburou's eyes, interacting directly with everything and everyone, rather than using commands. I love the use of the panorama view based on real photographs by the way, which reminds of the real photographs used as backgrounds in previous games like <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2013/01/blog-post.html"><i>Yume no Owari ni</i></a><i> </i>and <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2014/04/light-that-doesnt-shine.html"><i>Tomoshibi ga Kienu Ma Ni</i></a>.<br /><i></i><br />Gameplay-wise though, <i>Daedalus: The Awakening of Golden Jazz</i> is almost the same as the other games, providing a fairly linear experience. It's a mystery game, but most of the time you'll not be able to do any thinking yourself, as much of the story is streamlined: you can only continue in the story if you go to the right location to talk with the right person/find the right piece of evidence, and only then can you continue to the next location, etc. It's a fairly stress-free experience, but there's not freedom here. This game also introduces a so-called "Stance" mechanic (where you can react to a person with different attitudes), but in reality it's nothing but a multiple choice system, as there's usually only one correct stance to pick, and the game will eventually always force you to pick the correct stance. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lgnNlIvKx0c/XB9ijEuRi0I/AAAAAAAAD9E/f6WjGujYIH0-AckH7JFYrz4on3ut1sEVwCEwYBhgL/s1600/daedalus4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lgnNlIvKx0c/XB9ijEuRi0I/AAAAAAAAD9E/f6WjGujYIH0-AckH7JFYrz4on3ut1sEVwCEwYBhgL/s1600/daedalus4.jpg" /></a></div><br />New in <i>Daedalus: The Awakening of Golden Jazz</i> are the end-of-chapter confrontations, where Jinguuji confronts a person of interest with his findings. These confrontations are fairly simple, as you're basically asked a few questions, which you answer to with the discoveries you already made over the course of the chapter (basically, it's just checking whether you paid attention). Though these are one of the few moments where you can get a game over screen (besides a few select other points in the games), which is fairly surprising, because I don't think the series has featured a game over screen since the very first game!<br /><br />So despite all the flashier looks, <i>Daedalus: The Awakening of Golden Jazz </i>doesn't really differ from the other games mechanically, focusing much on <i>telling</i> a mystery story, rather than really challenging the player with game mechanics that allow them to think for themselves, but how does it fare as a mystery story? Well, I really want to like it more than I do. I quite like the new chapter structure, with Saburou solving a major incident at the end of each chapter (previous games were more like one long story), but these incidents are usually <i>incredibly straightforward</i>. When you find the proverbial bloody glove with the fingerprints of a suspect, you can be sure that the clue means the murderer was indeed the owner of those fingerprints, and that it's not some kind of red herring. These far-too-simple chapter cases seldom make feel like you've uncovered something big like in the previous games, which usually started with a small incident (a missing woman or something like that) which eventually are discovered to be part of a bigger case (often involving organized crime etc). <i>Daedalus: The Awakening of Golden Jazz</i> does become a story with scale eventually, but the smaller chapter cases are far too short and simple, with very few shocking surprises awaiting the player. What doesn't help is it often feels like there are holes in the storytelling and direction, as if scenes or lines had been cut. Sometimes things are mentioned as if we had heard about them before (which I'm sure we didn't or at least vaguely) and sometimes, the direction of scenes is just too vague, making it unclear what actually happened until they discuss it afterwards ("Oh, so thaaat's what happened). It's especially the moments where they treat a fact as commonly known, even though it's only been vaguely alluded too earlier, where <i>Daedalus </i>feels off. The overall story of <i>Daedalus</i> has some really good emotional moments, but also some choppy moments because of this uneven storytelling. It does become <i>a bit </i>silly at certain points regarding the backstory, but overall, I did enjoy the story. Warning though: <i>Deadalus</i> starts <i>incredibly</i> slow and the first chapter, set in the past when Saburou was at summer camp with his friends Abby, Leo and Ben, is arguably the worst one too, so you have to make your way through that until it becomes more interesting.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2-XLzm-S740/XB9ihb1ZvXI/AAAAAAAAD9A/_OVBpE_9uyg0A_MXvpYw5z3IL8pLGHdWgCEwYBhgL/s1600/daedalus2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2-XLzm-S740/XB9ihb1ZvXI/AAAAAAAAD9A/_OVBpE_9uyg0A_MXvpYw5z3IL8pLGHdWgCEwYBhgL/s1600/daedalus2.jpg" /></a></div><br />Though I have to mention this: the events of how Saburou and Youko first met in New York as depicted in <i>Daedalus: The Awakening of Golden Jazz</i>, don't exactly match the story alluded to in <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2013/01/blog-post.html"><i>Yume no Owari ni</i></a>, even though they're written by the same writer! Which is more than a bit strange considering the concept of this very game was to give the details about the incident that brought them together! Also: Youko is depicted <i>very</i> differently from how we know her in the other games. She's almost... tsundere! Funny is how Saburou is still a minor in this game, so he doesn't smoke nor drink, which are like the two things he <i>always</i> does in the main series (heck, the main series has a dedicated "Smoke" command, which usually functions as a "Hint" command).<br /><br /><i></i>The subtitle<i> The Awakening of Golden Jazz</i> refers not only to the awakening of Saburou as a detective, but also to the fantastic jazzy soundtracks that are a staple of the series. To be honest, at the start of the game, I thought the music was okay, but not really fitting to the series, but as you progress in the story, the music also changes and by the time you get to the end, the music does really sound like something you'd expect from the <i>Tantei Jinguuji Saburou</i> series, so the 'awakening' of jazz as you proceed in the game was a really nice touch! The music of the <i>Tantei Jinguuji Saburou</i> is my default 'writing' background music by the way.<br /><br />To be honest, at first I wasn't really looking forward to <i>Daedalus: The Awakening of Golden Jazz</i>, as the idea of a prequel game simply sounded rather uninspired to me. Having now played the game, I think my hesitations have shifted focus. Overall, I did have fun with this game, more than I had initially expected, and I am most definitely a fan of the graphical and music style they chose for this spin-off, but this game could also have been much more enjoyable if the storytelling had a brush-up, as many moments don't come across as intended because of clunky direction at times. I think the overall story works quite fine as a mystery story that doesn't quite feel like it would work in the main series, but perfectly as a spin-off prequel, but had the developers had more time to flesh out the seperate chapters too with more depth, I think this could've been a much, much better game. <br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Original Japanese title(s): 『ダイダロス：ジ・アウェイクニング・オブ・ゴールデンジャズ』</span>Ho-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-67150968510983835382018-12-19T00:00:00.000+01:002018-12-20T12:12:43.177+01:00The Mystery at Lilac Inn<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">「Aの予感」</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">『名探偵コナン 14番目の標的』</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp; </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"A sign of 'A'"</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"<i>Detective Conan: The Fourteenth Target</i>" </span></div><br />Like the two <i><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Nazotoki%20wa%20Dinner%20no%20Ato%20de%20%7C%20%E8%AC%8E%E8%A7%A3%E3%81%8D%E3%81%AF%E3%83%87%E3%82%A3%E3%83%8A%E3%83%BC%E3%81%AE%E3%81%82%E3%81%A8%E3%81%A7">Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de</a> </i>volumes and <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-locked-room.html"><i>Kagi no Kakatta Heya</i></a> last month, we have a novel today I had been postponing for several years now because I already knew the contents in some way.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g20s9ekGCzM/Wz0WMKni0GI/AAAAAAAADsk/iWSrPqbGbCYsYv-aFuQqM93bgiMnjjNCwCLcBGAs/s1600/lilac.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="282" data-original-width="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g20s9ekGCzM/Wz0WMKni0GI/AAAAAAAADsk/iWSrPqbGbCYsYv-aFuQqM93bgiMnjjNCwCLcBGAs/s1600/lilac.jpg" /></a></div>The Villa Lilac was once the home of a wealthy merchant, but after his suicide, the house in the mountains of Chichibu fell in the hands of the Japan Art Academy, which offered the facility to its students. One day, the caretaker and his wife welcome a group of seven students who are to stay a few days in the Villa Lilac. The Japan Art Academy is the result of a recent fusion between a music academy and an art (as in paintings) academy, and the background difference between these schools is also reflected in members of the colorful group, who don't really all get along with each other. Part of that is because of professional rivalry, but human emotions also play a role: the first night Tachibana and Salome announce their engagement to the others, which shocks at least three people heavily. The change in atmosphere is clear, and small, but strange happening occur afterwards, like a raincoat being stolen and all the spades being taken from a deck of cards. The following day, a local charcoal burner is found dead near the villa, with the stolen raincoat. At first, the police thought it was murder, but the fact the Ace of Spades was found near the body raised some questions. But they could never have expected that more deaths would follow in the Villa Lilac, and besides every body a Spade is found, counting up as the number of murders increase in <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Ayukawa%20Tetsuya%20%7C%20%E9%AE%8E%E5%B7%9D%E5%93%B2%E4%B9%9F">Ayukawa Tetsuya</a>'s <i>Lila Sou Jiken</i> ("<i>The Villa Lilac Case</i>", 1959).<br /><br />Ayukawa Tetsuya (1919-2002) was an influential post-war mystery writer and editor who specialized in classic puzzle plot mysteries. <i>Lila Sou Jiken</i> is one of his best known novels (<a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2013/01/destination-unknown.html"><i>Kuroi Trunk</i></a> is probably the best known) and actually one I already <i>sorta</i> knew before I even read this book! For long, long ago, I read the short story <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2012/07/a-study-in-scarlet.html"><i>Jubaku Saigen</i></a>, which served as the prototype for <i>Lila Sou Jiken</i>. While <i>a lot</i> was changed, with complete sections omitted or changed (the setting for example was from Kumamoto to Chichibu) and the overall backstory quite different, one can still recognize the core plot of <i>Jubaku Saigen</i> in <i>Lila Sou Jiken</i>, although one of the more remarkable elements is missed, as <i>Jubaku Saigen</i> was also a crossover between Ayukawa's two best-known detectives <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Inspector%20Onitsura%20%7C%20%E9%AC%BC%E8%B2%AB%E8%AD%A6%E9%83%A8">Inspector Onitsura</a> and the private detective <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Hoshikage%20Ryuuzou%20%7C%20%E6%98%9F%E5%BD%B1%E9%BE%8D%E4%B8%89">Hoshikage Ryuuzou</a>, while in <i>Lila Sou Jiken</i>, it's only Hoshikage who appears at the end of the novel to explain everything.<br /><br />Given the premise, it shouldn't surprise the reader <i>Lila Sou Jiken</i> is <i>breathing</i> classic puzzle plot mystery from every single page. Seven students (and two caretakers) staying at a mountain villa who are killed one by one is as classic a set-up as you can get, and with a prop like the playing cards being placed beside every body, you know somethings fishy is going on. People who have read <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2015/06/decagon-house-murders-released.html"><i>The Decagon House Murders</i></a> will certainly notice the influence <i>Lila Sou Jiken</i> had on <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Inspector%20Onitsura%20%7C%20%E9%AC%BC%E8%B2%AB%E8%AD%A6%E9%83%A8">Ayatsuji</a>, with the students gathering at a remote location, the cracks of the friendship between the students showing and even a scene where they play cards together. <i>A lot</i> of people die over the course of this story, which is even a bit unbelievable considering the fact that after the first couple of murders, the police is at the scene to keep an eye out on the situation, and even then people die, and even then the police doesn't allow the students to move to a safer place for the time being. Anyway,<i> many </i>murders happen, but interestingly enough, they all get killed in different manners, and that is also a driving mystery of the plot: why is the murderer being so varied?<br /><br />As you read this novel though, you might notice that Ayukawa's writing is a bit... dry. One can feel that he was focusing everything on constructing a tightly plotted whodunnit, but the result is that a lot of the events feel rather abrupt and sudden, brought to the reader just as a matter of fact. Like I mentioned, you'd expect the students, and <i>certainly</i> the police to react a bit more, either emotionally or with action, to the fact a serial murder is in the house and committing murders while the police's there, but the narrative brings each subsequent murder just as 'oh yeah, that happened.' The novel's not short, and the string of events that happen, but don't really happen <i>to</i> the characters can feel rather long because of that. Usually, when a new murder or some new mystery occurs in a novel, you're given all kinds of new information to process, or new clues that either bring new light to prior events or manage to muddle things even more, but in <i>Lila Sou Jiken</i>, most of it feels like discrete events happening one after another, with each subsequent event not having much effect on previous events, so by the end of the novel, you might feel a bit tired. There's variation in the murder methods, but besides that, it's just reading on as you're given new murders every few pages.<br /><br />So how does <i>Lila Sou Jiken</i> fare as a whodunnit? I'd say this is a well plotted and complex mystery, that does suffer a bit from the aforementioned lack of real effect and consequence shown to the reader. Looking solely at the core plot, one can see Ayukawa's skill: a lot of ideas and tricks are utilized for the murders, and all of them are used very competently. One particular, physical clue I liked especially, as it's so obvious in hindsight once you think about it as it's part of everybody's daily life. Other parts of the mystery are well-done, but a bit dependent on trivia: the clue that explains how a certain poisoning was done is <i>really</i> impossible to get unless you just happen to know one certain, obscure fact. There's another gimmick that Ayukawa often likes to use I think (I have certainly seen it in another of his short stories), that was handled pretty well, with multiple, diverse clues that help the reader deduce a certain fact in a fair way (one clue wouldn't be fair perhaps: multiple yes). But the plot does feel a bit sterile: each event is given little time to really settle, and with so many things going on, nothing really gets a chance to stand out. A lot of these ideas would've worked very good in short story whodunnits, but now they're thrown into one novel (even if connected in a believable way), weakening the impact of each seperate element. I think you have material here for three excellent short stories, but with this novel, you know that each part is pretty smart, and that they are still connected in a meaningful way, but you still wonder, perhaps the sum of everything isn't equal or more than the parts.<br /><br />That is not to say that <i>Lila Sou Jiken</i> is a badly plotted mystery novel, as it really isn't. Most authors would kill to come up with something as tightly plotted as this. But having read my share of Ayukawa novels <i>and</i> short stories, I feel that this book wasn't as "novel-like" as his other novels. That said though, <i>Lila Sou Jiken</i> is an impressively structured whodunnit mystery that is as classic as you can get. <i>Lila Sou Jiken</i> isn't considered as one of Ayukawa's best known novels for nothing, and for those who really enjoy a traditional puzzler, this is a no-brainer.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Original Japanese title(s): 鮎川哲也『りら荘事件』</span>Ho-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-75143411529038861992018-12-16T18:00:00.000+01:002018-12-17T11:22:02.379+01:00Riverboat Ruse<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">「あま もし さいしょから やりなおす ことが できれば なんとか なるのに・・・」&nbsp;</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">『ミシシッピー殺人事件』</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"Oh dear! If only we could redo this all from the beginning..."</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"<i>Murder on the Mississippi"</i></span></div><br />In general, I take a positive approach when writing a review here. Even when I don't really like a book, I at least try to identify or guess what aspects do hold potential, or what elements might others even if the work didn't resonate with me personally. As I don't have any obligation to write something about anything I consume, I don't really see the point of me writing something down if I truly can't find something interesting to note about a work. Of course, some people might enjoy the act tearing a work apart (and they may be completely right too), but I myself don't really go out of the way trying to uncover <i>bad</i> mystery fiction.<br /><br />That said, I really wanted to write about one piece of mystery fiction that is <i>notoriously</i> bad. When you consume a lot of mystery fiction, you usually have the masterpieces stand out in your memory, alongside the other works that might have made a lasting impression on you for some reason or another, but usually "bad" mystery fiction just becomes part of the pool of mediocrity, that sea in your memory where all the 'meh' books melt into one messy goo. It'd take a <i>really</i> bad work to stand out even among that dark mess. There are quite a few works where there's some kind of consesus that that agree that the work in question is an exceptionally good mystery novel. But what are the negative standouts in mystery fiction?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-orUsPcpLjXM/XBZTUAVxChI/AAAAAAAAD8M/d6gWStEv-0g2Qo6XGsG1vICuFbLLutoWwCLcBGAs/s1600/mississippi1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="277" data-original-width="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-orUsPcpLjXM/XBZTUAVxChI/AAAAAAAAD8M/d6gWStEv-0g2Qo6XGsG1vICuFbLLutoWwCLcBGAs/s1600/mississippi1.jpg" /></a></div>In Japan, there's a certain mystery title that is <i>widely</i> considered a total wreck and the source of much ridicule and jokes: the <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Games">videogame</a> <i>Murder on the Mississippi: The Adventures of Sir Charles Foxworth</i>. The game was originally released in 1986 by Activision and is available for various systems like the Commodore 64, Commodore 128 and the Apple II, but it's the exclusive Japanese version available on the Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System) that is infamously bad, it's actually often also named as one of the worst, if not worst Famicom game. And there were quite a few Famicom games that weren't that good! <i>Mississippi Satsujin Jiken</i>, as <i>Murder on the Mississippi</i> is called in Japan, is set on the ship the Delta Princess, which is making its way from St. Louis to New Orleans. Aboard are also the famous detective Sir Charles and his assistant Watson (who is called Regis in the original English text). The two go out to meet the other people on the boat, but discover a dead body in one of the cabins, who is identified as Mr. Brown, who owns the boat. Sir Charles and Watson set out to find out who the murderer is.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2S7SWBXlZP0/XBZTUB_87MI/AAAAAAAAD8U/sv-glcvpznQZgPVf2YZV9ysZIhmKwhHwwCLcBGAs/s1600/mississippi2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2S7SWBXlZP0/XBZTUB_87MI/AAAAAAAAD8U/sv-glcvpznQZgPVf2YZV9ysZIhmKwhHwwCLcBGAs/s1600/mississippi2.jpg" /></a></div><br />At the heart of things, <i>Murder on the Mississippi</i> follows a familiar pattern, with a detective present on a boat where a murder occured. In theory, you'll be going around speaking with all the people on the boat, uncover hidden pasts and ties, find evidence and finally accuse the murderer. And to be honest, there are some interesting ideas in this game. Unlike games like the epoch-making <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2012/01/blog-post_06.html"><i>Portopia Satsujin Jiken</i></a>, you don't use preset menu commands like "Go" or "Investigate" to play the game, but you as the player control Sir Charles directly, like in a platforming game. It gives you a good sense of the Delta Princess, as you walk from room to room in search of evidence and questioning all the guests. The game also has an interesting mechanic where Watson can write down one (1) sentence per testimony made by a witness, which you can then present to the other witnesses (something you'd later also see in games like <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Danganronpa%20%7C%20%E3%83%80%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AC%E3%83%B3%E3%83%AD%E3%83%B3%E3%83%91"><i>Danganronpa</i></a>).<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t2NRBE67nD0/XBZTVJAYp0I/AAAAAAAAD8Y/n_tLA8CA3AIwE8KeXa6lk-T5GzcarK1rgCLcBGAs/s1600/mississippi4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="156" data-original-width="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t2NRBE67nD0/XBZTVJAYp0I/AAAAAAAAD8Y/n_tLA8CA3AIwE8KeXa6lk-T5GzcarK1rgCLcBGAs/s1600/mississippi4.jpg" /></a></div><br />But the problem is, <i>this game is really bad</i>. I don't mean just that the graphics are bad (they're not, particularly), or that the characters are moving so slow, or even that the idea of Watson taking memos is hopelessly flawed as you only have one chance to write down the correct testimony even though you can not possibly know in advance what will be needed later and once you missed that window of opportunity, you're stuck until you reset the game and start all over again. No, what makes this a bad game, and a bad <i>mystery</i> story is that little of it makes sense. The most infamous part of this game is right as you walk inside the first room you see. For after just a few steps inside the (empty) room, Sir Charles will suddenly fall through a hole in the floor which wasn't there before, killing the player at once, leading to an instant game over. Watson notes it must be a trap and wishes he could re-do everything. The player obviously <i>has</i> to replay the game, but what makes this instant death trap absolutely nuts is that <i>at this point the player hasn't even discovered the body yet</i>. If you happen to walk into one of the two rooms with the invisible holes in the floor before you went to the room with the victim (which you are likely to do, one of the hole rooms is the room right next to yours!), you'll die before the case even started. I mean, why would the murderer even lay a trap door (which, practically speaking, can't even be done in a cabin room!) for Sir Charles when the body hasn't even been discovered and nobody's even aware of a murder!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GgstsQFb1-Y/XBZTUArVSkI/AAAAAAAAD8Q/JqF1xtMUWN4LuAGhYKMdMdHSFP_e0MPFgCLcBGAs/s1600/mississippi3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GgstsQFb1-Y/XBZTUArVSkI/AAAAAAAAD8Q/JqF1xtMUWN4LuAGhYKMdMdHSFP_e0MPFgCLcBGAs/s1600/mississippi3.jpg" /></a></div>Granted, the two rooms with the trap holes you can already enter before discovering the body are only present in the Japanese Famicom version (the original game is a bit nicer to the player), but there's another room where a knife comes flying straight at Sir Charles the moment he steps inside! Unless you know about the knife coming in advance and immediately move to avoid it, you are likely to get a knife right in your forehead. Again, this trap can be set off even before you ever find the body and learn a murder has happened on the boat (in fact, this makes Sir Charles the first victim...).<br /><br />So if you somehow manage to avoid the death traps, select all the right testimonies needed to make all the suspects talk, find all the pieces of evidence even though one of them can not be seen and you just have to decide to examine a certain spot on the boat for no particular reason and you <i>finally </i>accuse the murderer and uncover how Brown was killed and why, the game also shows why it's not just a bad <i>game</i>, it's also a bad mystery story. Sure, the basic plot is already <i>incredibly</i> simple (if you know what you have to do, you can clear it within the hour), basically boiling down to finding a weapon and a document that proves motive, but even that bare-bones plot is riddled with plotholes. Confronted with Sir Charles' accusations, the murderer confesses they did it, but they say it was done in self-defense. The problem: this goes <i>against</i> all the things seen in the game seen so far. Why are there death traps laid out across the boat for Sir Charles if it was done in self-defense (and that's ignoring the fact the traps are active even before the player discovers a murder happened!). Why was the bullet hidden inside a desk, even though it had supposedly fallen through a hole!? Why had nobody heard the gunshot, unless it <i>was</i> timed exactly with the morning bird shooting of the other passenger? And what makes this the <i>most</i> ridiculous story is that eventually, every other passenger will immediately forgive the murderer and even offer to help hide the truth, as apparently <i>everyone but Sir Charles and Watson</i> basically hated the victim and they already knew enough about the murderer's past to want to protect them now they learned who's the murderer. It's almost like the game sets out to portray Sir Charles as the bad guy for uncovering the identity of the poor murderer!<br /><br />As one of the earliest mystery adventure games on the home videogame console, <i>Murder on the Mississippi </i>has made a lasting impression on the generation that grew up with videogames, and not in a good manner. Of course, games like <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2012/01/blog-post_06.html"><i>Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken</i></a> and <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Jinguuji%20Saburou%20%7C%20%E6%8E%A2%E5%81%B5%E7%A5%9E%E5%AE%AE%E5%AF%BA%E4%B8%89%E9%83%8E">the early <i>Tantei Jinguuji Saburou</i> games</a> had their quirks too (the two <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Famicom%20Detective%20Club%20%7C%20%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%83%9F%E3%82%B3%E3%83%B3%E6%8E%A2%E5%81%B5%E5%80%B6%E6%A5%BD%E9%83%A8"><i>Famicom Tantei Club</i></a> games were <i>extremely</i> well done in comparison), but <i>Murder on the Mississippi</i> is both a bad <i>game</i>, in the sense that is not designed to give the player a good time, and it's a bad <i>mystery story</i>, as the events that unfold don't match up with what's said had happened, resulting a thin plot, that's still somehow filled with more holes than there are trap doors in the Delta Princess. And this is why <i>Murder on the Mississippi </i>is a mystery story that <i>a lot</i> of people know and why it's also widely considered a horrible one too.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Original Japanese title(s): 『ミシシッピー殺人事件』</span>Ho-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-86556340205283760972018-12-12T00:00:00.001+01:002018-12-12T00:00:09.147+01:00A Matter of Form<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Be our guest<br />Put our service to the test<br />Tie your napkin 'round your neck, cherie<br />And we provide the rest</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"<i>Be Our Guest</i>" </span></div><br />A few years back, I reviewed some novels written by Dutch writer/translator/radio script writer/actor <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Jan%20Apon">Jan Apon</a>. I had curiously enough first heard of this author through a Japanese source: the novel <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-house-of-lurking-death.html"><i>Een zekere Manuel</i></a> (1935) had been mentioned in a 1958 essay on European mystery fiction in the for the mystery genre important literary magazine <i>Houseki</i>. Apon's books don't appear often in the used book market, so it isn't easy coming across them (heck, I had to read a <i>German</i> translation of <i>Een zekere Manuel</i>), which is why I don't get to review his books as often as I had hoped.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jJ9XnBMOz0Y/Wz4uCe3TUdI/AAAAAAAADsw/DWjEQSJ4bYwJIpPuB5WJhJzGDolBuXf2ACLcBGAs/s1600/kamer13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jJ9XnBMOz0Y/Wz4uCe3TUdI/AAAAAAAADsw/DWjEQSJ4bYwJIpPuB5WJhJzGDolBuXf2ACLcBGAs/s1600/kamer13.jpg" /></a></div>Anyway, today's another Jan Apon novel, <i>De gast van kamer 13</i> ("<i>The Guest in Room 13</i>", 1938), and one starring his main detective <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/search/label/Raoul%20Bertin%20series">Raoul Bertin</a> no less! The narrator meets up in Paris with his old friend and consulting detective Raoul Bertin, who has just succesfully closed a case. The two travel to Nice for some leisure, and in Nice, the duo are entertained by Inspector Vitelli, an old collegue of Bertin when he was still with the Sûreté. During an excellent dinner, Vitelli tells his guests about a curious case he's working on. The Sestinatti is a hotel on the Quai with a good restaurant, and last Sunday, the guest residing in room 13 was found dead in his room. The merchant had apparently hanged himself by hanging a cord from a hook on the wall that was originally carrying a painting. A suicide letter was found that was determined to have been written by the man, so there don't seem to be any problems, yet Vitelli's gut feeling says something is wrong, as despite the letter, the man had no reason to suddenly take his life.&nbsp; His instinct is proven correct when during the dinner, Vitelli is informed that <i>another</i> suicide has happened in room 13 of the Sestinatti, and once again, it appeared the victim, an English student who was travelling with his French girlfriend, hung himself despite having no reason to do so. Bertin decides to help his old friend out with the case of this murderous room.<br /><br />I'm actually not sure how many books Apon wrote starring Bertin: the few sources I found on the internet are either wrong or contradictory to my own experiences (I have seen both <i>Een zekere Manuel</i> and <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2014/08/never-ape-apeman.html"><i>Het gorilla-mysterie</i></a> described as Bertin novels, which they most certainly aren't). So this <i>might</i> be the second novel starring the ex-police detective turned consulting detective, or perhaps even the third. It's surpisingly difficult to find information about these old Dutch mystery novels.<br /><br />Anyway, <i>De gast van kamer 13</i> certainly starts with an interesting premise: a room in a hotel where the guests keep on committing suicide. Or it is murder, in which case the question becomes why are the guests of room 13 killed one after another? In the first <i>Bertin</i> novel, <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2014/07/rhythm-and-police.html"><i>Paniek op de Miss Brooklyn</i></a>, there was clear suggestion of the supernatural, as that story revolved around a LP which had recorded a cursed incantation of the African M-bu-ti tribe. This time, Apon doesn't do much with what could be a great premise for a supernatural tone, as the many characters are looking at these deaths in very rational ways, weighing the evidence for and against suicide or murder carefully against each other and not really leaning towards the "it's a cursed room!" explanation.<br /><br />This is noticable from the way Apon handled the deaths. Somewhat disappointing, we get situations that<i> </i>are <i>just </i>not locked room murders. For example the first death, of the merchant, occured while the door had been locked from the inside.... but the balcony door was open, meaning someone could've climbed to another balcony or to the roof. The second death (of which Vitelli is informed during dinner) too is a case of something that <i>could</i>'<i>ve </i>been dressed by the author as an impossible murder mystery, but wasn't. If anything, Apon remains pragmatic, though the questions that weigh on the detectives' minds still hold for us readers too: <i>why</i> are these events happening?<br /><br />One vexing, and major point of Apon's writings have always been that while the core mystery plot is always entertaining, he for some reason <i>always</i> manages to conjure up new clues and evidence at the conclusion of which the reader had never ever heard of before. This is sadly enough also the case for <i>De gast in kamer 13</i>. While it is certainly fairly easy to guess who did it based on some of the hints, Bertin also refers to <i>a whole heap </i>of other clues that were certainly not ever mentioned before in the narrative. Some of the hints would've been <i>very</i> damning, basically spelling out the name of the culprit had they been mentioned, but other hints could've been incorporated quite nicely in the story in a natural way, showing them to the reader in a fair way, so I have no idea why Apon keeps on pulling out these clues out of nowhere at the end. It's pretty drastic too this time, as the whole motive for the curious deaths of room 13 can't be deduced beforehand based on actual clues, while Bertin apparently has a whole gigantic library full of evidence he collected here and there that he forgot to mention for half of the novel. A lot of the interim deductions are also based on information we don't get beforehand, but those I can forgive because they work to further the plot, but it's a whole different story when basically <i>all</i> vital clues are witheld from the reader.<br /><br />The thing is: <i>De gast van kamer 13</i> is pretty entertaining to read as a mystery novel. It's a real page turner, and the plot, while quite simple, manages to keep you entertained until the end. But for some reason Apon keeps on writing these otherwise fun mystery novels in a way that is not fair to the reader, as Bertin is basically always cheating, conjuring up a bloody knife with fingerprints and handwritten confessions by the murderer or other damning pieces of evidence out of nowhere, which he explains as having obtained between that one scene change. But it's also always so easy to see how this could've been rewritten in a true fair play whodunnit in a relatively simple manner, making the disappointment in an otherwise good novel the greater. In short: a fun novel, but with very obvious flaws.<br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Original Dutch title(s): Jan Apon "De gast in kamer 13"</span>Ho-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-26312457845617170882018-12-07T00:00:00.000+01:002018-12-11T15:46:39.718+01:00A Case of Identity<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">「友達じゃない」</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">『ミス・シャーロック』</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"She's not my friend."</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"<i>Miss Sherlock</i>" </span></div><br />Huh, I've used the <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Sherlock%20Holmes"><i>Sherlock Holmes</i> tag</a> at least once every year since I started this blog, even when I wasn't really writing about mystery fiction.<br /><br />I think my own introduction to Sherlock Holmes was the series of Austrialian TV cartoons based on the novels (with Peter O'Toole as Holmes, though I watched them dubbed in Dutch), and while I don't consider myself a Holmesian by any means, Holmes has been a series close to me since. Holmes is in fact a being close to <i>a lot</i> of people in this world, as evidenced by the <i>ridiculous</i> amount of appearances he still makes nowadays in various manners. Be it in a confrontation with Dracula or Cthulhu, in the twenty-second century with a robot Watson, or reimagined in the form of a mouse or dog, creators <i>always</i> reach back to Holmes. I have to admit that I can be a bit of a cynic when it comes to "new" interpretations of Holmes, and I still can't see how a confrontation with Dracula could work out in a positive and entertaining manner but sometimes, I'm pleasantly surprised. For example, I really didn't see the use of having a Sherlock Holmes series set in modern times, but I <i>loved</i> BBC's <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Sherlock"><i>Sherlock</i></a> right from the very first episode, and who could've guessed that <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-adventure-of-dancing-men.html">a videogame where Sherlock Holmes is always making the <i>wrong</i> deductions would actually be an excellent and unique interpretation of the beloved character</a>?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hWsCu-Tbudg/XAgegtiwISI/AAAAAAAAD7Q/dS7I6A2FTRkjJ5N8Zcv_Qlu1m-Z4g_yWQCLcBGAs/s1600/misss1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="192" data-original-width="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hWsCu-Tbudg/XAgegtiwISI/AAAAAAAAD7Q/dS7I6A2FTRkjJ5N8Zcv_Qlu1m-Z4g_yWQCLcBGAs/s1600/misss1.jpg" /></a></div>That said, the first time I heard of the 2018 drama series <i>Miss Sherlock</i>, my expectations were really not that high, as the premise of a <i>Sherlock Holmes</i>-inspired show with two female leads in modern day Tokyo wasn't particularly exciting. The gender swap was something I could shrug at, as I don't really care either way, but the concept of "modern day Tokyo" was enough to sound the alarms, because I had a feeling that this drama would not be inspired by Sherlock Holmes, but by <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Sherlock"><i>Sherlock</i></a>. It reminded me of the TV drama adaptation of <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Arisugawa%20Alice%20%7C%20%E6%9C%89%E6%A0%96%E5%B7%9D%E6%9C%89%E6%A0%96">Arisugawa Alice</a>'s <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2016/01/death-of-living-dead.html"><i>Writer Alice</i>/<i>Himura Hideo</i> series</a> a few years back. It was an excellent mystery show on its own, but oh man, all the cues it took from <i>Sherlock</i> in terms of direction.... It's hard to not see <i>Sherlock</i> if the protagonist is dressed in a long coat while having semi-maniacal fits and words are projected on the screen.<br /><br />And <i>Miss Sherlock </i>sadly enough turned out to be indeed a series that draws <i>major</i> inspiration from <i>Sherlock</i>. I mean, the coat and the projected words and stuff don't even seem that bad, but when you consider that even <i>Miss Sherlock</i>'s theme music seems to be inspired by <i>Sherlock</i>'s main theme, it's <i>really</i> hard watching this without being constantly reminded where most of the ideas came from.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KW6M1byaEWo/XAgegs_QJSI/AAAAAAAAD7M/f2MOQGNLggUV_er5RhGDnQ1bDArP1KXZgCLcBGAs/s1600/miss3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KW6M1byaEWo/XAgegs_QJSI/AAAAAAAAD7M/f2MOQGNLggUV_er5RhGDnQ1bDArP1KXZgCLcBGAs/s1600/miss3.jpg" /></a></div><br />But okay, if you can get past the extreme <i>Sherlock</i>-ness of <i>Miss Sherlock</i>, what do you get? Well, it's a reasonably entertaining Sherlock Holmes show. <i>Miss Sherlock</i> starts with the return of doctor Tachibana Wato (because: Wato-san) from Syria, where she worked as a volunteer surgeon (considering Japan has a Self-Defense Force, a logical change). She was wounded in an explosion in Syria, prompting her return to Japan. Upon arrival in Japan, she's welcomed at the airport by her old mentor and friend, but a mysterious <i>internal</i> explosion blows up the stomach of Wato's mentor, killing him on the spot. In the ensuing police investigation, Wato learns that Inspector Reimon has called in the consulting detective Sherlock, a rather rude and self-centered, but also brilliantly sharp woman (she took on the name "Sherlock" after a certain incident). More people are killed in the same way as Wato's mentor, but Sherlock manages to solve the case with the help of Wato, who has to move in with Sherlock as Wato's own accomodations had had a rather unfortunate mishap. <br /><br />What follows is a show that is a decent and fairly amusing, but not remarkable interpretation of Sherlock Holmes. Some episodes of <i>Miss Sherlock </i>are more heavily inspired by the original stories than others, while others feel more like they were inspired by <i>Sherlock</i>. There's an episode heavily based on <i>The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire</i> for example, but the extended twist at the end works&nbsp; well enough as a way to really make it feel like a real story set in modern day Japan and a good example of a reasonably good adaptation of the original source story, followed by some original material of the production team. The episode based on <i>The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor</i> has a nice twist that actually feels Holmesian, though it seems <i>rather silly</i> to go through all that trouble for that goal. Another early story feels quite Holmesian with a seemingly meaningless act (a vandalized painting) at the start that builds up to a story of larger crime. The emphasis on the "modern" can be a bit much though, with deadly new viruses and poisons becoming the McGuffins of the episode a few times.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oi4NaRxI6_g/XAgeg8hkziI/AAAAAAAAD7U/o2s6y7D4BD4jniUrvntQic-UhSYNRDSiQCLcBGAs/s1600/miss4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="266" data-original-width="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oi4NaRxI6_g/XAgeg8hkziI/AAAAAAAAD7U/o2s6y7D4BD4jniUrvntQic-UhSYNRDSiQCLcBGAs/s1600/miss4.jpg" /></a></div><br />Eventually, the story will also build up to something larger as it approaches the grand finale. I think most people can guess that Sherlock will eventually face a "Big Bad" at the end of the series. Your mileage may vary here. I thought the concept behind the Big Bad was not only <i>far</i> too obvious, but also reminiscent of the lesser parts of <i>Sherlock</i> and I couldn't really take it serious. By the way, I have seen far too many Japanese productions with some link to Sherlock Holmes now with characters whose names are based on Moriarty....<br /><br />As depictions of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, I think <i>Miss Sherlock</i>'s Sherlock is more inspired by <i>Sherlock</i>'s Sherlock than the source!Sherlock Holmes, but Wato works quite well in the context of the series. She's not an army surgeon like other depictions of Watson, but a private citizen, a doctor who suffers from PTSD after her experiences in Syria, and she works well as a humanizing factor, though admittedly, this also means she kinda ends up as the 'says or does something that helps Sherlock solve the case' character, with little else to contribute to the investigation.<br /><br /><i>Miss Sherlock</i> is undeniably a <i>Sherlock</i>-inspired series, and that brings a certain burden. The series can be a bit uneven, and I think the first half, which is more firmly rooted in the source material, is more entertaining than the second. It works reasonably as a Sherlock Holmes-in-the-modern-day adaptation, and the gender/location changes too work well enough as something different once in a while. But while the series can be fun, <i>Miss Sherlock</i> has little truly original to offer, and most of the time, you'll have the feeling you have seen this already in one form or another. It's a decent series, but misses just that extra oomph.<br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Original Japanese title(s): 『ミス・シャーロック』</span>Ho-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-84971725948294797482018-12-06T00:00:00.000+01:002018-12-06T00:00:07.577+01:00The Perfect Plot<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;形がないものならば</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">いつも感じていればいい</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">「今宵エデンの片隅で」（Garnet Crow）</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">If it has no form</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">You can always keep on feeling that emotion</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"<i>Tonight, in a corner of Eden</i>" (Garnet Crow)</span></div><br />Speaking of mystery stories about comedians, that TV special a couple of years ago starring real-life Japanese comedians like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakarhythm">Bakarhythm</a>, Date from Sandwichman, Hakata Daikichi (who also voice-acted in<i> <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/10/justice-for-all.html">Detective Conan:</a></i><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/10/justice-for-all.html"> <i>Zero the Enforcer</i></a>) and others playing themselves as suspects in the murder of Bananaman's Himura: that was a <i>weird</i> special.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VrzTRCbdxUo/XAZun6cSB6I/AAAAAAAAD60/PGigktd9wwwPbpR9kLW03W0K561A4RcUACLcBGAs/s1600/qediff2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="304" data-original-width="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VrzTRCbdxUo/XAZun6cSB6I/AAAAAAAAD60/PGigktd9wwwPbpR9kLW03W0K561A4RcUACLcBGAs/s1600/qediff2.jpg" /></a></div>The second volume of <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Q.E.D.%20Shoumei%20Shuuryou"><i>Q.E.D. iff Shoumei Shuuryou</i></a> ("<i>Q.E.D. iff Quod Erat Demonstrandum</i>") brings us two new adventures of the brilliant high school student Touma Sou and his classmate Kana in this continuation of the original <i>Q.E.D.</i> <i>Shoumei Shuuryou</i> series. As per custom, we have both a "conventional" murder story as well as a non-murder story in one volume, and this second volume starts with the non-violent one. In <i>The Naked Emperor</i>, Touma is asked by his classmate Yuubari to help her brother. Yuubari Yuuki was one half of the rising star comedy duo Order to Leave, but two years ago, his partner stopped to go work in a normal company. Since then, Yuuki's been trying his luck as a solo comedian, but his story is not that one of success, and he has sorta made up his mind to give up on his dream, but not without going out with a bang. The last few months, he has been writing his own one-act comedy play called <i>The Naked Emperor</i>, which is by far the best he's ever produced according to friends and his fellow young comedians. The rumors about his fantastic play however also reach the ears of the highly popular comedian Suzuka Santa and his ruthless manager Akashi, who want to get their hands on that play so Suzuka can star in it. One day, Suzuka visits the dressing room of the venue where Yuuki and several other comedy groups are performing. He first asks to if he could read the play, but when he offers to buy the play from Yuuki, his offer is refused. When Suzuka leaves the dressing room, Yuuki discovers his (handwritten) play is gone, and suspicion obviously falls on Suzuka, but there is one problem: Suzuka was <i>completely naked when he entered the dressing room so how could he have smuggled the play outside without anyone noticing</i>? Touma has not only have to solve the mystery of the missing script, but also find a way to help Yuuki succeed with his play.<br /><br />The 'impossible' disappearance of the script is just the very beginning of the story, and quite simple to solve, but it certainly makes an impact, as the thief (Suzuka) was completely naked and empty-handed as he entered and left the dressing room. It doesn't take long for Touma to solve this disappearance (it's <i>really</i> simple), but Yuuki's problems aren't solved quite yet, as he's eventually hired by Suzuka as an employee to direct and rewrite the play so Suzuka can star in it anyway (together with Yuuki and some others), and slowly, Yuuki realizes he's being bamboozled out of the play he wrote for himself. What follows is a "mystery" story of a kind you never see in <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Meitantei%20Conan%20%7C%20%E5%90%8D%E6%8E%A2%E5%81%B5%E3%82%B3%E3%83%8A%E3%83%B3"><i>Detective Conan</i></a> or <i><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Kindaichi%20Shounen%20no%20Jikenbo%20%7C%20%E9%87%91%E7%94%B0%E4%B8%80%E5%B0%91%E5%B9%B4%E3%81%AE%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%B6%E7%B0%BF">Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo</a>,</i> as we see Suzuka's manager Akashi, but also Touma himself trying several schemes to help out their respective "clients" and while everyone can guess that it's Touma who ends up victorious in the end, the kind of plan he comes up to help out Yuuki is unlike anything in the other major detective manga and almost closer to the schemes in series like <i>Liar Game</i> (watch the drama, it's an excellent mystery series!). It's extremely unlikely everything would go exactly as Touma had anticipated, but it's certainly possible to deduce what his plans are once you're presented the semi-Challenge to the Reader. Like <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/10/a-question-of-proof.html"><i>In The Year of Quantum</i> in the first volume</a>, this story requires you to consider several facts mentioned throughout the story and combine in a purely logical manner to see how they pertain to each other and that the implications are.&nbsp; <br /><br />The second story, <i>The Form of Murder</i>, is a "normal" murder story. It's summer, and Touma's friend Sid Green, AKA Loki (whom he knows from his MIT days) has invited Touma and his assistants (yes, multiple, as more girls besides Kana wanted to come along) to Malta, where Loki's uncle runs the Hotel Geometry, a hotel for academics who need some rest. One of the guests is Alf Lets, an Oxford mathematics professor, whose wife Camilla was murdered four months ago in Malta, in the very same hotel. Her death was considered a robbery-gone-wrong by the local police, but Alf is convinced it was a planned murder, and has been searching the whole of Malta to find a clue that'll lead him to Camilla's murderer. He's accompanied by his friends the Goodmans and his solicitor Bris, who were also in Malta on the night of the murder. Seeing how Alf is exhausting himself in search of clues, Loki wants Touma to solve the murder, which indeed has a few interesting points.<br /><br />The arranged marriage between the carefree, partying Camilla and the bookworm Alf was by all means a complete failure, as Camilla was getting worse and worse with his treatment of Alf and quite openly flirting and cheating on him with other men. On the night of Camilla's murder, Derek Goodman warned Alf he should divorce from Camilla, while Franny Goodman was getting quite enough of Camilla hitting on Derek. Bris too was of the opinion Camilla meant nothing but trouble for Alf, but he had no intentions of listening to his friends. That night, Camilla had a hangover and a headache, and asked Alf to get her something to help ease the pain. Alf left the hotel keys with reception as he went out to the store, and the Goodmans and Bris also went their own ways, but when Alf returned, he found his wife dead with a knife in her. The murder was committed in the period everyone was roaming around on their own, but the door and windows to the room were locked and the keys were kept at the reception desk, so even if a robber didn't commit the murder, who did and more importantly, <i>how</i> did they get in and out the seaside hotel room?<br /><br />Unlike <i>Detective Conan</i> and <i>Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo</i>, <i>Q.E.D.</i> stories are about 100 pages per chapter (story) due to the magazine in which it is serialized, which gives it the freedom to build a different kind of story than one that is structured around multiple chapters each about 18~20 pages, and with a mini-climax/cliffhanger at the end of each chapter. <i>The Form of Murder</i> however is an example where you can also sense the advantages of a more rigid structure, as <i>The Form of Murder</i> likes to meander a lot, and the pace is really, really slow. Having chapters like <i>Conan</i> or <i>Kindaichi Shounen </i>would've at least brought a more focused way of telling the story. The way in which the locked room was constructed was okay, even if it was a bit unclear whether that certain action was possible or not (better clewing would've been appreciated), but the story kinda stumbles over the things the murderer did, and attempted to do besides the murder, resulting in a somewhat unguided, and at times even confusing story.<br /><br />Like with the first volume, I find <i>Q.E.D. iff Shoumei Shuuryou 2</i> to be decent, but not unique enough to get me really invested in the series. The non-murder stories, that employ the scientific field of logic are definitely what set <i>Q.E.D. iff</i> apart from its rivals and can be very fun, but I still haven't come across <i>the</i> story that'll convince me to go out and buy the other volumes. That said, I still have another volume of <i>iff</i> I got in the free offer, so expect a review of that volume in the future.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Original Japanese title(s): 加藤元浩 『Q.E.D. iff -照明終了-』第2巻</span>Ho-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-51510085946324290912018-12-05T00:00:00.000+01:002018-12-05T00:00:00.151+01:00 Magical Mystery Enemies<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"That's all magic is, an illusion."</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"<i>Jonathan Creek</i>" </span></div><br />I thought it had been several years since I last read a Rampo, but it wasn't even that long ago that I read the excellent <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2017/01/la-demeure-mysterieuse.html"><i>Yuureitou</i></a>. Guess I forgot because it wasn't about <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Akechi%20Kogorou%20%7C%20%E6%98%8E%E6%99%BA%E5%B0%8F%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E">Akechi</a>.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-J8--FtdpDNY/WzohEjjIiRI/AAAAAAAADsY/-HTB-cVHg-ADlAr88yaoo4CU5BzCSUYQgCLcBGAs/s1600/majutsushi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="286" data-original-width="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-J8--FtdpDNY/WzohEjjIiRI/AAAAAAAADsY/-HTB-cVHg-ADlAr88yaoo4CU5BzCSUYQgCLcBGAs/s1600/majutsushi.jpg" /></a></div>After defeating the crazy murderer the Spider-Man in the novel <i>Kumo Otoko</i> (1929-1930), amateur detective <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Akechi%20Kogorou%20%7C%20%E6%98%8E%E6%99%BA%E5%B0%8F%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E">Akechi Kogorou</a> decided to take a long deserved holiday, resting at a lakeside hotel. There he becomes friends with Taeko, the beautiful daughter of the wealthy jeweler Tamamura Zentarou. After she returned to Tokyo, Akechi of course hoped he'd be able to meet her again, but he couldn't have guessed their reunion would come so soon: Akechi is contacted by the police, who want his help involving a mysterious threatening case. At first, Akechi refused, until he learns that it involves Fukunaga Tokujirou, the uncle of Taeko. Letters with numbers counting down have been appearing in the man's house every day now, and Fukunaga is afraid that once the countdown reaches zero, something horrible will happen. Akechi takes the first train back to Tokyo, but he's immediately kidnapped by an unknown party and during Akechi's absence, Fukunaga is murdered inside his locked bedroom by apparently a gigantic man. It seems like Akechi's latest foe can truly make the impossible possible and stopping this fiend won't be easy in <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Edogawa%20Rampo%20%7C%20%E6%B1%9F%E6%88%B8%E5%B7%9D%E4%B9%B1%E6%AD%A9">Edogawa Rampo</a>'s <i>Majutsushi </i>("<i>The Magician</i>", 1930).<br /><br />After <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2014/11/step-by-step.html">a series of short stories with the amateur detective Akechi Kogorou</a>, <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Edogawa%20Rampo%20%7C%20%E6%B1%9F%E6%88%B8%E5%B7%9D%E4%B9%B1%E6%AD%A9">Edogawa Rampo</a> (father of the Japanese detective story) also had Akechi appear in novels. Akechi'd slowly transform from a bookish student to an amateur detective, to a dandy gentleman detective over the course of his career, with <i>Majutsushi</i> still being set in his amateur days, though he finally opens a true detective agency at the end of this novel. Akechi also meets his future assistant/wife in this novel, who's often an active character in subsequent Akechi novels, as well as in the <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2011/01/and-i-would-have-gotten-away-with-it.html"><i>Boys Detective Club</i> series</a>, so for fans of the character Akechi Kogorou, <i>Majutsushi</i> is a must-read for fleshing out his life.<br /><br />Rampo had Akechi confront a terrifying, almost inhuman murderer in the thriller <i>Kumo Otoko</i> (1929-1930) and <i>Majutsushi</i> continues with that trend. In fact, most Akechi novels pit him against some kind of superfiend, like a <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Scooby%20Doo"><i>Scooby Doo!</i></a> monster, with whom Akechi will have several confrontations over the course of the story. This is also what happens in <i>Majutsushi</i>, where Akechi sometimes outwits, and sometimes is outwitted by a murderer who appears in front of Akechi as a circus magician, and who is hell-bent on killing all members of the Tamamura family. Besides the silly super-criminal trope, you also have the usual Rampo tropes here, like a focus on voyeurism, with several of the murders being displayed in public in all their goriness. Like I mentioned in <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2012/02/blog-post_16.html">my review of <i>Issunboushi</i></a>, exhibitionism, and a delayed realization of that plays a big role in Rampo's detective stories. In <i>Majutsushi</i> too, the eponymous Magician stages for some of his murders (or chopped off body parts) to appear in public, and usually people first look at it, find it odd, and only after that, it slowly starts to dawn upon them that what they just saw, was something horrible. Lenses and mirrors are also a Rampo-thing, and true enough, mirrors also appear in this story (not so curious of course, considering Akechi is fighting a magician).<br /><br />As a mystery story, it's a bit like most Rampo novels, that is, not particularly memorable. <i>Majutsushi</i> is a serialized novel, and give it some credit, this is one of the better plotted ones by Rampo because with most of his other serialized novels, you can <i>really</i> tell he's simply winging things as he's going, while <i>Majutsushi</i> is actually reasonably tightly plotted, but still, the whole thing feels like a somewhat unambitious pulpy thriller. Most of the events that happen are just there to 'shock' the reader, even though they never really do, and the few truly horrifying scenes we get, are taken from Edgar Allan Poe stories (which Rampo also points out in his own look back at this novel). The locked room murder at the start of the novel has a silly, uninspired solution that Rampo has actually used in other novels in better ways, and other events in this novel aren't about detecting anymore, but at "look at how gruesome that is!". This is a pulp thriller, a very pulpy one at that too, but not nearly as entertaining as other Rampo pulps like <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2009/07/it-would-be-better-to-die-than-eke-out.html"><i>Kurotokage</i></a>.<br /><br />There's a juvenile version of this novel by the way, also titled <i>Majutsushi</i>, set in the <i>Boys Detective Club </i>series. Rampo rewrote several of his stories as juvenile stories for this series starring the young assistant of Akechi Kogorou, Kobayashi. <br /><br />So overall, <i>Majutsushi</i> is very typical of a Rampo serialized novel, that is, it's an <i>incredibly</i> pulpy story brimming with Rampo's trademark tropes. Judged solely on its mystery plot, <i>Majutsushi</i> does nothing particularly special, even if it tries to throw some surprises at the reader, but overall, I think this novel is most notable for its place in the Akechi timeline, establishing both the background of his future wife and Akechi's move to a professional private detective.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Original Japanese title(s): 江戸川乱歩『魔術師』 </span>Ho-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-33723437485946289752018-12-01T00:00:00.000+01:002018-12-01T00:00:01.692+01:00Memories of Murder<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">決してその手を離さずに</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">振り返らないでいて</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">願うだけしか出来ない私を</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">いつの日か裁くでしょう </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">「未完成の音色」（Garnet Crow）</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Without letting go of your hand,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I will not turn around</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Hoping for that is all I can do</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">But one day, I will certainly be judged</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"<i>An Imperfect Sound</i>" (Garnet Crow) </span></div><br />Sometimes you start reading a book expecting it'll lead to an interesting review. And sometimes, those expectations don't come true.<br />&nbsp; <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eYN3G_3aXqA/WzPqEu99t9I/AAAAAAAADqE/Bohw7P1V3Q0VwwDaPGEIFP8xDcDJR1ccgCLcBGAs/s1600/shisha.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eYN3G_3aXqA/WzPqEu99t9I/AAAAAAAADqE/Bohw7P1V3Q0VwwDaPGEIFP8xDcDJR1ccgCLcBGAs/s1600/shisha.jpg" /></a></div>After the publication of his latest short story <i>Whip the Dead</i>, mystery author <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Ayukawa%20Tetsuya%20%7C%20%E9%AE%8E%E5%B7%9D%E5%93%B2%E4%B9%9F">Ayukawa Tetsuya</a> and his editor are shocked by the review of an influential critic, who accuses Ayukawa of plagiarism: his story has more than a few similarities with the short story <i>The Unfinished Manuscript</i>, which was written by the female author Ishimoto Mineko and published ten years ago in the now defunct magazine <i>Zero</i>. Ayukawa assures his editor he based <i>Whip the Dead</i> on an unpublished story he himself wrote <i>thirteen</i> years ago, during a period when he was a starting author, sending manuscripts here and there in the hopes of getting published. He eventually lost sight of the story, assuming it disappeared in a desk drawer of some magazine editor, but now Ayukawa suspects that Ishimoto found, and plagiarized his story ten years ago, resulting in his predicament now. Hoping to restore his honor and position as a mystery author, Ayukawa and his editor set out to find Ishimoto Mineko and set things straight in Ayukawa Tetsuya's <i>Shisha wo Muchi Ute</i> ("<i>Whip the Dead</i>", 1965).<br /><br /><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Ayukawa%20Tetsuya%20%7C%20%E9%AE%8E%E5%B7%9D%E5%93%B2%E4%B9%9F">Ayukawa Tetsuya</a> (1919-2002) was a highly influential post-war mystery author, who specialized in classic puzzle plot mysteries, from the impossible crimes in his <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Hoshikage%20Ryuuzou%20%7C%20%E6%98%9F%E5%BD%B1%E9%BE%8D%E4%B8%89"><i>Hoshikage Ryuuzou</i> series</a> to the alibi-deconstruction tales of his <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Inspector%20Onitsura%20%7C%20%E9%AC%BC%E8%B2%AB%E8%AD%A6%E9%83%A8"><i>Inspector Onitsura</i> series</a>. Later in his life he would also become an important editor at publisher Tokyo Sogen, with writers like <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/search/label/Ashibe%20Taku%20%7C%20%E8%8A%A6%E8%BE%BA%E6%8B%93">Ashibe Taku</a> and <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/search/label/Arisugawa%20Alice%20%7C%20%E6%9C%89%E6%A0%96%E5%B7%9D%E6%9C%89%E6%A0%96">Arisugawa Alice</a> making their debuts in the special publishing label named after Ayukawa. <i>Shisha wo Muchi Ute</i> however is basically a parody of himself, as "Ayukawa Tetsuya" stars in the tale, being accused of the heinous crime of plagiarism!<br /><br />Starting with this very meta-opening, <i>Shisha wo Muchi Ute</i> remains a moderately funny and interesting parody, and pastische of not only Ayukawa, but the whole post-war industry of Japanese mystery fiction. As Ayukawa and his editor try to track down Ishimoto Mineko, all kinds of episodes strongly related with the <i>real</i> history of Japanese mystery fiction are told, from the rise and fall of pre- and post-war magazines for mystery fiction and the phenomenom of writer salons, to observations about how editors and publishers used to work. Ayukawa (the author, not the character) is obviously basing this on his own experience, and he gives an interesting look into how mystery writers lived in the early post-war period. A story like that of an rookie author initially plagiarizing Craig Rice successfully because it was hard to get information on foreign works soon after the war is something that sticks with the reader for example, and Ayukawa also has a lot of mystery authors appear, or at least name-dropped, throughout the novel (both male and female), though with slightly altered names. Some of them are still known, but there are also plenty of names which are long forgotten now, or were even long forgotten by the time <i>Shisha wo Muchi Ute</i> was originally published! <i>Shisha wo Muchi Ute </i>is thus an insightful look in the turbulent history of mystery fiction soon after World War II.<br /><br />The mystery plot however... is not that attractive. Up until now, I've only seen Ayukawa come up with very intricate puzzle plots, with impossible crimes, perfect alibis or mathematically precise whodunnits. <i>Shisha wo Muchi Ute</i> is more a detective-adventure, with the character Ayukawa chasing after the elusive Ishimoto Mineko. The story has Ayukawa tracing old editors who used to work at <i>Zero</i> and digging in people's memories, but the core mystery plot is not at all like what I'm used to with Ayukawa's work and to be honest, it's not really that interesting. A few deaths occur during Ayukawa's investigation, which might or might not be murder, but they do hardly anything to make the plot really exciting, or alluring, and by the end of the novel, I realized that the mystery plot was not engaging at all. The ending has quite the surprise and while it is hinted at, I'd argue the hinting was a bit weak.<br /><br />I described this book as a parody, as it is obviously parodying Ayukawa himself (the character Ayukawa is definitely Ayukawa himself, and not another entity who happens to have the same name, like the Ellery in the Ellery Queen novels or the Alices in Arisugawa Alice's two <i>Alice</i> series). The comedy in this novel is not <i>really </i>funny though. Your mileage may vary of course, but <i>Shisha wo Muchi Ute</i> is not a "Haha funny" parody. Most of the work I've read by Ayukawa is 'normal' serious, but with <i>Shisha wo Muchi Ute</i>'s unique premise, I was expecting something with a more pronounced comedic tone, but alas. Ayukawa sometimes tries for slapstick-esque comedy here, but it seldom feels more than an attempt. Recognizing all the slightly arranged names of real authors is fun though, as are some of the episodes Ayukawa relates which are probably based on real life episodes.<br /><br />So <i>Shisha wo Muchi Ute</i> is definitely more interesting as a&nbsp; dressed-up look back at the post-war period of Japanese mystery fiction, especially in regards to the writers and the magazines of that time, rather than as a mystery story on its own. You can really tell Ayukawa is digging through his own past here, in his own experiences as a writer who first started out sending out manuscripts and doing odd jobs here and there for various magazines and eventually became a professional full-time writer and editor, but the mystery plot itself is simply not nearly as engaging as the biographical parts of the story.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Original Japanese title(s): 鮎川哲也『死者を笞打て』</span>Ho-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-62845614615525817792018-11-29T00:00:00.000+01:002018-11-29T13:23:04.270+01:00N Or M?A while back, I made <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-quest-of-missing-map.html">a post about floorplans and diagrams in mystery fiction</a>, and I mentioned how excited I could become just by seeing them at the beginning of a book. Often, the floorplans are only presented at the relevant part of the story, for example when there's an investigation of a room, but I always love it when I see the plans in the first few pages of the book, even if only because it suggests location will play a big part in the story. But then I also remembered that there's <i>another</i> thing I love to see in mystery novels between the cover and the actual start of the story: a character list!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tUcrTUEvpAg/W_7lRWgE-pI/AAAAAAAAD6E/c6nE-3gdGAY1Y-iUYvgxQNOlkbUb0oE7ACLcBGAs/s1600/dramatis1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="287" data-original-width="400" height="229" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tUcrTUEvpAg/W_7lRWgE-pI/AAAAAAAAD6E/c6nE-3gdGAY1Y-iUYvgxQNOlkbUb0oE7ACLcBGAs/s320/dramatis1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />The dramatis personae is of course nothing but a list of the names of the principal characters in a work, often accompanied with a short one-line description of said character. <i>The detective</i> or <i>Hated family patriarch who is totally going to get killed for the inheritance</i> or something like that. <i>Occassionally</i> we even have authors who manage to write a <i>witty</i> dramatis personae. But I can feel my glee-levels rise even if it's just a plain list of names and roles. In essence, it's not much different from seeing the names of the actors of a stage play in the pamphlet, and there is indeed something overly theatrical about seeing a list of names before you have even read one word of the story. Seeing the names and their roles and relations presented in bullet point form helps create an preliminary image of the story, and it can be fun seeing your expectations be proven right or wrong. As someone who often sees the mystery story as an intellectual <i>game</i>, the dramatis personae also feels like a fair gesture towards the reader, by giving a proper and clear list of all the concerned parties.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yaMGfxQUkNc/W_7lRhtx2WI/AAAAAAAAD6M/lcmwTdAhYcQumZPTdLnYVwNrnYx4EzQwwCLcBGAs/s1600/dramatis2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="224" data-original-width="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yaMGfxQUkNc/W_7lRhtx2WI/AAAAAAAAD6M/lcmwTdAhYcQumZPTdLnYVwNrnYx4EzQwwCLcBGAs/s1600/dramatis2.jpg" /></a></div><br />Also, I'm simply horrible with remembering names and characters! I am a fan of <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-wrong-shape.html">the short story form</a>, where the dramatis personae is not often utilized as they're not really needed practically speaking, but man, sometimes I really need one when reading longer novels. Some of my favorite reads of this year like <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/11/crawling-with-zombies.html"><i>Shijinsou no Satsujin</i></a>, <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-burglar-in-library.html"><i>Toshokan no Satsujin</i></a> or <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/01/attack-of-headless-horror.html"><i>Kubinashi no Gotoki Tataru Mono</i></a> for example luckily feature a dramatis personae, because all of them feature easily more then twenty, thirty named and significant characters! Add in the fact I often read multiple novels at the same time, and I can say I can only be grateful for character lists, as they help me remember who belongs in what story.<br /><br /><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Zk17AyVeplw/W_7lRWlpP5I/AAAAAAAAD6I/Lcyg5G9B58Ef-g9whQunnqH-SGewe_ZZQCLcBGAs/s1600/dramatis3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Zk17AyVeplw/W_7lRWlpP5I/AAAAAAAAD6I/Lcyg5G9B58Ef-g9whQunnqH-SGewe_ZZQCLcBGAs/s1600/dramatis3.jpg" /></a>By the way, I am also <i>a big</i> fan of how names and characters are presented in the anime adaptations of <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Meitantei%20Conan%20%7C%20%E5%90%8D%E6%8E%A2%E5%81%B5%E3%82%B3%E3%83%8A%E3%83%B3"><i>Detective Conan</i></a> and <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Kindaichi%20Shounen%20no%20Jikenbo%20%7C%20%E9%87%91%E7%94%B0%E4%B8%80%E5%B0%91%E5%B9%B4%E3%81%AE%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%B6%E7%B0%BF"><i>Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo</i></a>. <i>Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo</i> for example has a very iconic avant-title screen, where they show all the important characters of the story in a grid. What makes this character screen especially creepy is that they grey out the characters who die each episode, so with each episode, you see more and more greyed-out panels, leaving fewer and fewer suspects. Seeing all the characters on the screen at the start of each episode also helps when a story takes four episodes to tell. What both <i>Conan</i> and <i>Kindaichi Shounen</i> also do are the floating name panels whenever a new character makes their first appearance. Name, age and profession are projected beneath the character in question, immediately explaining who they are. It's <i>incredibly</i> artificial and theatrical, as you have text floating in your screen suddenly near a character, but it's also <i>incredibly </i>handy for remembering new characters, as you see the name spelled out. Some might think it's <i>too </i>artificial, but I think it works wonderfully in puzzle plot mysteries, where characters are important puzzle pieces of the "game"&nbsp; and it doesn't hurt to clearly label them.<br /><br />By the way, I can't think of any mystery stories I've read at the moment that really make use of the dramatis personae as part of the mystery plot. I've seen mystery stories avoid them to be fair, for example, because one character is actually playing two characters at the same time and it wouldn't be fair to write down both personas in the list. But not really one where you <i>need</i> the dramatis personae to solve the mystery, so it'd be nice to come across one once.<br /><br />Next time in my aimless musings: family trees, and how complex should they be? (*I'm not serious)Ho-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-87174217366307032772018-11-25T13:00:00.000+01:002018-11-26T16:57:39.486+01:00Crawling with Zombies<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"They're just dead flesh, and dangerous."</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>"Night of the Living Dead</i>" </span></div><br />Most of the Japanese books I have, are in the so-called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunkobon">bunko</a> format: A6-format pockets which are both small and relatively cheap, yet still printed on reasonably good paper. While there are also novels which are printed right away in the bunko format, new novels are usually first printed in large hardcover or softcover format at a higher price point, and after three or four years, the novel is reprinted/replaced in the bunko format, which is usually half the price and the physical size. So often, I hear all kinds of great things about newly released novels but I still choose to wait a few years for the bunko release. I had been eyeing <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2015/04/rain-man.html">Aosaki Yuugo's <i>Taiikukan no Satsujin</i></a> since its release in 2012 for example, but waited until it was released as a bunko in 2015.<br /><br />Sometimes, this wait can be <i>excruciating</i> however. Case in point: 2017's <i>Shijinsou no Satsujin</i> ("<i>The Murders in the Villa of the Dead</i>"). If you had to name <i>one</i> novel that made <i>enormous</i> waves in the world of Japanese mystery fiction, it would be this debut novel by Imamura Masahiro released last year. For Imamura managed to accomplish something nobody had done before, with his very first novel: take the number one spot in the Kono Mystery ga Sugoi, Weekly Bunshun Mystery Best 10 and Honkaku Mystery Best 10 rankings. This was the first time anyone had managed to grab the grand spot of these three annual mystery fiction rankings. These awards are all backed by different publishers, and each determine their rankings differently based on votes of critics/authors/readers, so it was no wonder nobody before had ever managed to come in at no. 1 in all three rankings. The novel alsomade off with the Honkaku Mystery Award by the way, meaning it was extremely well-received among all kinds of readers of mystery ficton. And yet I was planning to wait patiently for the bunko release, no matter how much I wanted to read the book. That is, until I came across a generous cashback campaign this week which returned half the price in store credit. And I am glad to say that <i>Shijinsou no Satsujin</i> is indeed one of the most entertaining mystery novels I've read this year!<br /><br /><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d2ci0E85MAw/W_qIu5UT75I/AAAAAAAAD5c/TVV01oYpEw86sjpNnMlfSFW95cXVnTkAwCLcBGAs/s1600/shijin1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="295" data-original-width="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d2ci0E85MAw/W_qIu5UT75I/AAAAAAAAD5c/TVV01oYpEw86sjpNnMlfSFW95cXVnTkAwCLcBGAs/s1600/shijin1.jpg" /></a>Narrator Hamura Yuzuru is a college freshman who is drafted by Akechi Kyousuke into the Shinkou University Mystery Fiction Club (not to be confused with the Mystery Fiction Research Club). Akechi is not only the president of the club (which now has two members), he's also an aspiring detective who has solved a case or two on campus, earning him the nickname of "the Holmes of Shinkou". The two learn that the university's Film Club has received a mysterious note with the message "Who will be the next sacrifice?", which seems to be related to the club's annual trip to a countryside hotel, where this year, they'll shoot a short <i>Blair Witch</i>-type horror film as part of their club activities. Hamura and Akechi are quite surprised when they are invited by Kenzaki Hiruko to come along with this trip. Second year student Hiruko has solved several criminal cases in the past and has even been awarded by the police for her exploits, though she has kept that all a secret and it's only through his connections that Akechi knows about this. Hiruko isn't a member of either the Film or Drama Clubs, but as many members didn't want to go this year because of the mysterious letter, she's been invited to make up for the female numbers (the annual Film Club trip is also an excuse to get hooked up), and Hamura and Akechi are her tagalongs.<br /><br />The Violet Villa used to be a private holiday villa overlooking Lake Sabea, owned by the parents of one of the graduated members of the Film Club. They later had it renovated into a little hotel, and now the Shinkou University Film Club can stay there for free for their summer trip, while the son of the owners and his friends also come down to meet the current Film Club members (and try to get lucky with the female members).&nbsp;The first day is supposed to end with a barbeque dinner and a 'test of courage', where they'll visit a creepy shrine in boy-girl pairs, but this game is horribly interrupted when the group is suddenly assaulted by... a horde of zombies! Not everyone makes it back alive to the Violet Villa, and the group of survivors has no choice but to flee up to the upper two floors of the hotel and barricade themselves against the waves of zombies waiting for them below. Cut off from the outside world, the survivors make plans on how to keep the zombies downstairs until they're saved, but while the news on television warned people to look out and be on their guard for the "strange" epidemic that started at a local music festival, the survivors couldn't have known that the zombies weren't the only danger in the hotel. In the early hours of the following morning, the Film Club's president is found dead in his room and the way his face and body had been mutilated by horrible biting marks, leaves little doubt that his death came by the hands of a zombie, but there are also several problems to this conclusion: while only a zombie could've committed the murder in such a horrible way, only a <i>human</i> could've performed feats like somehow opening the locked hotel room and leaving mysterious handwritten threatening notes in and outside the room! Even supposing a zombie did commit the murder on its own, how did they get through the barricade and out again without anyone noticing!? And this isn't the only violent murder to occur inside the Violet Villa while the zombies are coming closer and closer in Imamura Masahiro's <i>Shijinsou no Satsujin</i> ("<i>The Murders in the Villa of the Dead</i>", 2017).<br /><br />So I knew <i>of</i> this novel since last year, but I hadn't actually read up on the story, so imagine how surprised I was when I came to the part <i>zombies</i> appeared in the story! Imamura comes up with a unique way to created a closed circle situation, as in this novel, the characters aren't cut off from the outside world due to storms or broken bridges, but zombies (and jammers and media blocks by the authorities to prevent people from spreading panic and false information on social media). There are some short segments that "explain" the how and why of the zombie attack, but don't mind that too much: it's all an excuse to create a unique closed circle situation for a mystery novel, and one that works really well too!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VL8aJZXYVpI/W_qIu1m1WVI/AAAAAAAAD5Y/AupQDziHXN8m5tTTaiCsry-yx1pO9mdygCLcBGAs/s1600/shijin2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="289" data-original-width="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VL8aJZXYVpI/W_qIu1m1WVI/AAAAAAAAD5Y/AupQDziHXN8m5tTTaiCsry-yx1pO9mdygCLcBGAs/s1600/shijin2.jpg" /></a></div><br />The book opens with the three-storied floorplan of the hotel and I think it kinda symbolizes how dynamic this story actually is. When you first open the book, you might read through the character list and try to memorize where everyone is sleeping in the hotel, but once the zombies come, you can forget everything. Corridors are barricaded and closed off, people are eaten by zombies, others are murdered and everyone has to move to other rooms or to other floors as the zombies slowly break through the various lines of defense and available space becomes less and less. In your mind, you're constantly updating the 'map' as circumstances change. <i>A lot</i> happens in <i>Shijinsou no Satsujin</i> and you certainly can't accuse it of being a boring mystery novel with long investigation scenes in the middle, because this is a novel that uses the form of the zombie panic movie to not only bring thrilling scenes from start to finish, but also to force frequent changes on the circumstances that help deepening the core mystery plot, for example by creating siutations where characters have to move to other rooms or by making some parts of the villa inaccessible after a while, which are all elements that will later be used in determining the culprit.<br /><br />It's in this ever-changing locale that we see multiple impossible murders occur. These murders too make fantastic use of the zombie setting: one of the main problems the detectives face in this novel is the question of how and why these murders were committed, as all the murders show signs of both zombie, and human action: the horrible way in which the murders are committed could only be attributed to the zombies, and yet there's also a human hand detectable, but how could one person direct the zombies without endangering themselves or the other people? Besides an "orthodox" locked room murder, there's also a murder where the victim was dragged outside of their room, which was obviously locked from the inside, so a different type of impossible murder. What makes this novel so fun is that all the murders only work <i>because</i> the story's set during a sudden zombie attack. These murders could not possibly have worked if the story had been set in a "normal" world, without zombies. While the zombies are not completely explained within this work, Imamura carefully hints at certain conditions and characteristics of the zombies in this novel which you'll need to solve the case, and Imamura skillfully utilizes the zombies to create unique murder situations. As an example of how to do a good supernatural/fantasy mystery novel, <i>Shijinsou no Satsujin</i> gets very high marks (though I have to add that <i>Shijinsou no Satsujin</i> does not feel <i>really</i> fantasy-like, it's fairly realistic. Save for the zombies).<br /><br /><i></i>And while some might be turned off by zombies in a mystery novel, the way the murders are solved in <i>Shijinsou no Satsujin</i> show it's definitely a true, puzzle plot mystery that is intricately planned out and fair to the reader. Despite the unrealistic plot device of zombies, Imamura does a great job at both clewing and defining the capabilities of the zombies and nobody could ever accuse of him of being unfair to the reader. The mystery solving is quite Queen-like, in the sense that the deductions revolve much around physical evidence and "this culprit did this, which means they must have also been here or done that, and therefore..." lines of thought, but keeping in line with the dynamic of the zombie panic story, these deductions are never too long, and quite to the point, and while <i>Shijinsou no Satsujin </i>certainly isn't a simple mystery to solve, it's certainly solvable without having to keep precise notes. There is one moment that contains a very damning piece of evidence in regards to the identity of the culprit that might feel a bit unfair, I admit, but that's more in the sense of "I'd have wanted some psychological explanation for that" than really "Wait, that came out of nowhere", as it is something is definitely properly hinted at, and the implicitions are clear, even if you don't want to believe it at first.<br /><br /><i>Shijinsou no Satsujin</i> is thus a very entertaining debut work by Imamura, that manages to mix the zombie panic genre in a wonderful manner with a classic puzzle plot locked room mystery. The unique closed circle situation and the inspired way in which zombies are utilized in the mystery plot are fantastic and I can't wait for Imamura's sequel to this novel, which was announced a while ago! Definitely a contender of one of my best reads this year.<br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Original Japanese title(s): 今村昌弘 『屍人荘の殺人』</span>Ho-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-48947123284176648092018-11-21T00:00:00.000+01:002018-11-21T10:17:31.914+01:00The Case of the Distressed Lady<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">「大変失礼ながら、お嬢様の単純さは、まさに幼稚園児レベルかと思われます」</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">「聖なる夜に密室はいかが」</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"I might be speaking out of line, ma'am, but you're simplemindedness is basically the level of kindergarten"</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"<i>How About A Locked Room On Holy Night?"</i></span></div><br />I <i>very seldom</i> read books by the same author one after another. No matter how much I might like a writer, or for example when I suddenly become hooked on a certain series, I almost always wedge another book in between. I guess I just like to have some variation, and not stick with an author for more than one book at a time.<br /><br /><u><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Nazotoki%20wa%20Dinner%20no%20Ato%20de%20%7C%20%E8%AC%8E%E8%A7%A3%E3%81%8D%E3%81%AF%E3%83%87%E3%82%A3%E3%83%8A%E3%83%BC%E3%81%AE%E3%81%82%E3%81%A8%E3%81%A7"><i>Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de</i></a> series</u><br /><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-case-of-rich-woman.html"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de</i></span></a><br /><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-case-of-distressed-lady.html"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de 2</i></span></a><br /><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2015/09/make-me-perfect-murder.html"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de 3</i></span></a><br /><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2011/10/blog-post_24.html"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de</i> (first impressions TV drama)</span></a><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2014/03/murder-is-served.html"><i>Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de</i> (theatrical release) </a></span><br /><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2012/01/secret-of-my-heart.html"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de</i> (audio drama)</span></a><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-a9MwUw841_E/WzOOJyjeDsI/AAAAAAAADpw/Z4_kIblc3FkLD-EJr7-uvgB4qngb1RICQCLcBGAs/s1600/nazotoki.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="289" data-original-width="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-a9MwUw841_E/WzOOJyjeDsI/AAAAAAAADpw/Z4_kIblc3FkLD-EJr7-uvgB4qngb1RICQCLcBGAs/s1600/nazotoki.jpg" /></a></div>Today's book is therefore a rare exception. Last time, I reviewed <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Higashigawa%20Tokuya%20%7C%20%E6%9D%B1%E5%B7%9D%E7%AF%A4%E5%93%89">Higashigawa Tokuya</a>'s <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-case-of-rich-woman.html"><i>Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de</i></a>, an excellent short story collection of which I knew the contents already from <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2011/10/blog-post_24.html">the 2011 TV drama adaptation</a>. I had bought the book long, long ago, but it remained on the to-be-read pile because I wanted to forget most of the details of the drama before reading the original stories. After reading that book however, I decided to continue with the sequel, which I had bought together with the first volume back in 2012. <i>Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de 2</i> ("<i>Mystery Solving Is After Dinner 2</i>", 2011) continues the adventures of the female police detective Houshou Reiko, who unknown to her fellow officers, is in fact also the insanely rich heiress of the Houshou Group. Each day after work, while she's enjoying a luxurious dinner, she likes to lament about her well-meaning, but not particularly competent superior Inspector Kazamatsuri and the difficult cases she's saddled with, but her mysterious butler Kageyama always manages to solve the cases simply by listening to his mistress' stories. Unlucky for Reiko is that Kageyama also has a very sharp tongue and he doesn't hold back his (polite) comments about his mistress'&nbsp; intelligence as he explains how it was done. This collection features another six of these mysteries to be solved after dinner.<br /><br />It shouldn't surprise the reader that this second volume is simply 'more of the same'. Each story follows the same rough outline of Reiko and Kazamatsuri coming across a new murder and them questioning everyone involved, and at the end of the day, Reiko tells Kageyama everything, who solves the case like the armchair detective he is (even though he remains standing of course, as he's a butler). The stories do have a tendency to feel a bit alike after a while (especially as I read the first two volumes after another), and often revolve around a crime scene with something out-of-the-ordinary (a naked body; a victim who had her hair cut after the murder; a victim who had her boots on in her apartment even though that's not done in Japan). Usually there are three suspects, and the key to solving these stories is figuring out why the crime scene turned out the way it did, and from there deduce who it was. For those who saw the drama: I <i>think</i> every story here was also adapted for the series (together with the stories from the first volume), but if I remember correctly, some of the stories were mashed together for the two-part finale. <br /><br /><i>Alibi wo Goshomou de Gozaimasuka</i> ("<i>Would You Like An Alibi?</i>") has Reiko and Inspector Kazamatsuri working on the murder of a 35-year old woman, who was found in the staircase of a largely empty tenant building. The coroner's report, and a sighting of a neigbor who saw her leave the apartment building, put her death between 19:45-21:00, giving the victim enough time to get from her apartment building to the place where she was killed. The main suspect is her ex-boyfriend, who dated her for seven years, but suddenly dumped her so he could date, and soon marry, the daughter of an executive of his company. The man has an alibi though, as he spent the early night with an old colleague, after which he spent two hours in a cafe, as vouched for by the owner of that coffee shop. Kageyama's explanation for how this alibi was created has some really good ideas, and some less inspired ones. The way Kageyama explains why it is very likely that the suspect is indeed the murderer is absolutely brilliant: the hint for this is hidden both in your face, but also subtle enough for anyone to read across it (I know I did). But once pointed out, you realize how obvious it should've been. The way the alibi was actually done however is far more crude, and a bit disappointing considering how good the set-up was.<br /><br /><i>Koroshi no Sai wa Boushi wo O-Wasurenaku</i> ("<i>Don't Forget Your Hat During A Murder</i>") has Reiko and Kageyama vistiting Reiko's hat shop, as she's working on a case that is connected to hats. A woman had been killed in her bath tub, and it was discovered that not only the victim's phone and computer were missing, but also her <i>hats</i> from her closet. But who would want to steal a woman's hat collection? This is a very tricky story, but the moment Kageyama explains why the murderer would want to take the hats with them is fantastic: the explanation is logical, convincing and one can see that Higashigawa did his best at setting everything up, though it still requires a bit of imagination on the part of the reader. Once you know why, the story turns into a whodunnit, and while it's a simple one, it's expectly plotted, even complete with a false solution! Definitely one of the best stories in this volume.<br /><br /><i>Satsui no Party ni Youkoso</i> ("<i>Welcome To The Party With Murderous Intent</i>") starts with Reiko arriving at the hotel where the sixtieth birthday party of the father of her friend/rival Ayaka is held. Ayaka, Reiko, as well as two other heiresses, were all members of their university's seasonal sports club, and have kept their friendship/rivalry alive all the time. During the party, the daughter of the owner of the hotel (who was also acquaintances with Reiko and her friends) is assaulted in the glass house on the roof garden of the hotel. The only thing the victim could say before she was taken to the hospital was that was assaulted by a woman in reddish dress, who she didn't know, but looked familiar. Besides Reiko and her three friends, there were only three other women who answered to the description of the attacker, but who of them was the assailant? Again a story that has strokes of true genius, but also elements that feel a bit underwhelming. One part of the mystery is basically only solvable if you know a certain piece of trivia. A different clue in regards to the identity of the attacker is very tricky, and perfectly executed here. The setting of this story is used to its fullest to make this trick possible, and it's quite easy to imagine how this would've gone. It requires the most careful of readers to even get an inkling of what is being played here.<br /><br /><i>Seinaru Yoru ni Mittsutsu wa Ikaga</i> ("<i>How About A Locked Room On Holy Night?</i>")<i> </i>has Reiko in a somewhat bad mood on the morning of December 24th, especially after Kageyama asked what her plans were for the night. She takes the bus to her work, but runs into a woman who says her friend was killed. The victim was living in a small house, which save for the entrance was encircled by a concrete wall, with everything covered in the snow of the night before. The only tracks leading to the entrance were the foottracks to and away from the house made by the friend who discovered the body, and a bicycle track made by the victim when she came back last night. At first sight it seems the victim might've fallen from the loft, but the neighbor's testimony of having seen someone's shadow after she heard the fall that would've killed the victim, seems to suggests it was murder. But how did the murderer escape the house without leaving any traces in the snow? Like <i>Koroshi no Sai wa Boushi wo O-Wasurenaku</i>, this story can be tricky, as it requires you to deduce the existence of an object that has not been mentioned explictly before, but I think it's much easier in this story. Once you get to that point, it's almost a straight line to figuring out how the murderer escaped the house. The whodunnit is simple and short, but surprisingly well done, with subtle hints that allow you strike you out the people who certainly couldn't have done it.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_KG4QCqG_T8/WzOOrdS_SPI/AAAAAAAADp4/Ew-2eHZeyVIPJk7RqUEaHCFgxz21HpGlACLcBGAs/s1600/nazotoki22.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="301" data-original-width="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_KG4QCqG_T8/WzOOrdS_SPI/AAAAAAAADp4/Ew-2eHZeyVIPJk7RqUEaHCFgxz21HpGlACLcBGAs/s1600/nazotoki22.jpg" /></a></div>Hanayagi Electric Appliances was a household name, even before the scandal, and then the tragedy became the talk of the town. Hanayagi Kenji having a mistress was a scandal: him dying in a traffic accident was a tragedy. But tragedy never comes alone, we learn in <i>Kami wa Satsujinhan no Inoch de Gozaimasu</i> ("<i>Hair Means the Life of a Murderer</i>"), as one morning, the housekeeper of the Hanayagi household wakes up to find something burning in the living room, where she finds a dead body. At first, she mistook the body for one of the family, but it turns out the victim was Yuuko, Kenji's niece, who often came to visit the Hanayagi home to visit her cousins. Usually, the housekeeper would recognize her of course, but for some reason, Yuuko's beautiful long, black hair had been cut and burned in the fireplace. Strangely enough, I've read a couple of stories about bodies of whom the hair was cut (<a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.jp/2012/08/pnp.html">here</a> and <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2017/05/gathering-pieces.html">here</a> for example), and this one is another interesting one. Deducing why the hair had been cut can be a bit difficult, I think, though there are a couple of nice clues that hint at something big behind the missing hair. This story is definitely not plotted as tightly as previous ones, but still an okay story. <br /><br /><i>Kanzen na Misshitsu nado Gozaimasen</i> ("<i>There Is No Such Thing as a Perfectly Locked Room</i>") is about the death of an artist: on the day of his demise, his niece and a freelance writer were about to enter his atelier, when they heard him cry out and something loud fall: inside the atelier, of which the wall was covered in a gigantic fresco, they found the artist with a knife in his back and a stepladder which had fallen over. At first sight, it seemed like he was working on the wall with the knife when he fell over, but it seems unlikely he could've stabbed himself in the back then. But if it was a murder, how did the murderer escape, as the two who first discovered the victim were standing in front of door of the building when they heard him scream, and there are no other windows in the atelier through which the murderer could've escaped. A story on which your mileage will probably vary a lot: I really liked the way the escape route of the murderer was hinted at, but I didn't like the escape route itself.&nbsp; So the way Kageyama arrived at the solution, I thought much more interesting than the solution itself.<br /><br />So while <i>Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de 2</i> was not surprising in terms of story format, this volume was quite entertaining once again. Despite the short length of each of these stories, Higashigawa manages to come up with very intricately plotted whodunnit plots, with excellent clewing and also alluring crime scenes. Some of the things he manages to pull off here are <i>really</i> tricky, with some hints that are almost screaming in your face in hindsight, but always go undetected by the reader the first time. For people who have seen the drama, I'm afraid only <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2015/09/make-me-perfect-murder.html">the third volume</a> has stories you don't know yet.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Original Japanese title(s): 東川篤哉『謎解きはディナーのあとで2』：「アリバイをご所望でございますか」/「殺しの際は帽子をお忘れなく」/「殺意のパーティにようこそ」/「聖なる夜に密室はいかが」/「髪は殺人犯の命でございます」/「完全な密室などございません」</span>Ho-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.com2